Hocus Pocus
by Colb-a-nater
Summary: This is what could've happened right after Ash met the Poké Witch and got turned into a Pikachu. Lots of action and based completely off of the Pokémon anime!
1. Chapter 1

Hocus Pocus ½

**For those of you that don't know, this story starts right after the episode Hocus Pokémon when Ash first gets turned into a Pikachu. My friend, Lisa, wanted me to bring this here, so here ya'll go. Tell me what you think of it. **

"Man, Pikachu, how can you walk like this?" asked Ash, getting back on his two back feet.

Pikachu rolled its eyes and kept walking on all fours besides Ash.

"Ash do you have to complain every time you try something Pikachu's way?" asked Misty, annoyed. Togepi, who was being held in Misty's arms, made a little noise, like a baby that just liked to make noise.

"Well, Misty, why don't you try getting a Pikachu body and walk on all fours," said Ash.

After meeting a witch and having been turned into a Pokemon accidently, our heros wait for Ash's transforming potion to ware off. Now, after saying their farewells to the friendly witch, the gang decided to continue on their journey while waiting for Ash to turn back to his old self.

However, even with a new look, Ash just cannot get along with Misty.

"Well, I'm not the one who wanted to get inside Pikachu's head so badly that I didn't even double-check the book!" shouted Misty, face turning red.

Brock and Pikachu both rolled their eyes as the two continued their never-ending fight with each other.

"How was I supposed to know to check the book? Lily didn't even know about it, so how would I?" argued back Ash, trying to regain balance on his back two Pikachu feet.

"You could've just asked to double-check the book," said Misty.

"I couldn't even read half the things in that book!"

"I'm sure it's not rocket science, Ash."

"Well then, lets see you try, yourself, Misty."

"We're already about ten miles away from when we met Lily! Why would I want to go all the way back?"

"Because you-"

"STOP!" shouted Brock, covering his ears.

Ash and Misty stopped their argument and looked at Brock. Brock lowered his hands from his ears and spoke slowly and quietly.

"Lets. . .just. . .go. . .please? Even when Ash isn't a human, you two can't stop arguing with each other!" stated Brock.

"Pika. Chu, kachu," said Pikachu.

"It's not my fault that-"

"I said enough!" snapped Brock, stopping Misty from saying anything else. "Just stop arguing for once! We're never going to get anywhere if you two keep this up!"

Misty was about to protest some more, but Brock placed a hand over her mouth to prevent further argument.

Once Brock was sure that Misty wouldn't say anything else, he took his hand off her mouth. Misty glared down at Ash and Ash glared up at her from her feet.

Soon, the two looked away from each other, for they heard shouting further down the trail they were taking.

The four looked toward the noise and saw four men running. One was running ahead of the other three, apparently the one being chased. The one ahead wore a black T-shirt, blue jeans, and brown running shoes. He looked teenaged, had dark brown hair, and slightly tanned skin.

The other three men behind him each wore long sleeved gray shirts and pants. Two of them had black hair while the other had black hair with highlights.

The teen saw Ash and his friends and almost stopped in his tracks. However, because he slowed down, the other three men caught up to him and pummeled him down to the ground.

Two of the gray shirts grabbed the teenager and held him up to his feet, while the other rubbed his fists.

"Should we help him?" asked Ash, seeing that the teenager had no hope of getting away.

The gray shirt held back his fist, then flung it towards the teen's face, but the teenager quickly moved to the side and made one of the gray shirts holding him get slammed with the fist, making him let go.

The teenager, then, grabbed the other gray shirt with his free hand and threw him at the one that was suppose to have punched him.

"Which one?" asked Brock.

The two gray shirts with black hair got back up to their feet and tried to throw all sorts of kicks and punches at the teenager. The teenager blocked and dodged all of the attacks and counter attacked with a jab to the head and a kick to the chest. The gray shirt with the highlights walked behind the teenager and wrapped his arm around his neck, over his back.

The teenager grabbed the man's arm with both hands and flipped the gray shirt over his back and slammed him onto the ground.

"Wow. He's a pretty good fighter," commented Misty, still standing there with the others, watching.

The teenager, having seen that all of the gray shirts were laying on the ground, too tired to continue, whipped his head from sweat and walked towards Ash and his friends.

However, when the teenager had his back turned, one of the gray shirts with black hair got back to his feet and reached his hand to the side of his pants.

Ash recognized the motion as reaching for a Poke ball.

"Look out! He's got a Pokemon!" shouted Ash.

The teenager looked at Ash with wonder, probably amazed to see a talking Pikachu, but forgot to look behind him to where the danger was.

The gray shirt pulled out a Poke ball and threw it out at the teenager.

"Go, Golem! Get him!" shouted the gray shirt.

The Poke ball landed on the ground and opened, releasing a white beam of light that twisted and turned in the air. Soon, the white light grew and formed a shape, then turned into a huge bolder with reptile arms, legs, and head sticking out of it.

"Gol! Golem!"

The teenager heard the Pokemon behind him and turned around, but the giant rock reptile tackled him before he had time to react.

Ash wanted to help, but all fo his Poke balls were with Misty in her pack. Pikachu can do something.

"Pikachu, go help him!" commanded Ash to his best friend.

Pikachu leaped out and ran towards the Pokemon now on top of the innocent teenager. Pikachu tackled the Pokemon with its head, but it didn't hurt the Pokemon enough.

"Pikachu wont help much, Ash. It's a rock type," said Misty while reaching for her own Poke balls with one arm and the other holding Togepi. "Go Marill! Use Water-gun!"

She threw one of her Poke balls and released a small, blue Pokemon. The Marill ran over to Pikachu's side and shot water out of it's mouth at the Golem on top of the teenager.

As soon as the water slammed on the rock Pokemon, the Golem flew off of the teenager and onto the gray shirt that called it.

The gray shirt fell back down to the ground with the huge load of his Pokemon on top of his stomach. He quickly grabbed his Poke ball off of the ground.

"Golem . . . return," he said from behind the rock Pokemon.

The Pokemon turned back into a red beam of light and was swallowed back into the Poke ball which it came out of.

The other two gray shirts that saw the small Pokemon fight soon got back up to their feet and ran the away the way they came from, screaming in vain for their lost.

"You haven't seen the last of us, kid!" shouted one of them as they disappeared from view.

"That's right! You better run!" shouted back Misty. Togepi did a little chant of excitment for Misty's victory.

"Ha! We showed him, didn't we, Pikachu?" said Ash, but before Pikachu could respond, Misty cut in.

"'We'? First off, Ash, you didn't even do anything! Pikachu did, and even that wasn't much!" said Misty.

Ash was about to say something, but then Brock cut in.

"Hey guys, I hate to cut your argument, but where did that guy that we saved just go?" asked Brock.

Ash and Misty stopped and looked around. Indeed the teenager was nowhere in sight.

"Huh. . .I could've sworn that he was right in front of us," said Ash.

"Why do you think those other guys where attacking him?" asked Misty.

Brock scratched his chin.

"I don't know," said Brock. "Wonder why he left like that."

"I mean, we saved him, didn't we? The least he could do is say thanks," said Misty.

Misty returned Marill back to its Poke ball and placed the ball back in her bag.

"Might as well keep walking. We still have a long way to go till the next town," said Brock.

And so, they continued their walk. Every now and then, they would bring up the subject of the mysterious person that fought his attackers so well. Other times, they would talk about what to do with Ash in his new Pikachu body.

"Which reminds me," said Misty. They have been walking for a couple of hours and the sun was half way into the earth. "Ash, you talked to the guy."

"So?" asked Ash, walking on two feet since four seemed to not be working for him.

"'So'? Ash, you're a Pokemon now! And most Pokemon can't talk, especially a Pikachu!" exclaimed Misty.

"Well, what was I supposed to do? Just stand there and not warn him? I had to say something! Besides, does it really matter if I talk? Team Rocket's Meowth talks, so why can't I?" asked Ash.

"Ash," started Brock. "Meowth's have a higher chance to learn to talk. In fact, Team Rocket's Meowth isn't the only known one in the world to be able to talk."

"Well, what about that Gastly we saw that one time? It could talk!" said Ash.

"Yes, but it was a very strong ghost type Pokemon, Ash," said Brock. "Some ghost Pokemon are known to talk."

Ash stayed quiet. His friends were right, as usual, but what could possibly happen if one person saw him talk?

They continued to walk on their never-ending trail in silence. Soon, the trail led between some woods.

Threes surrounded them on each side of the trail for miles, it seemed. The sun was almost engulfed by the earth and the darkness was starting to creep around them.

"Okay, guys. It's getting pretty dark, so we shou-"

Brock's sentence was cut off by a shadow. A sudden stream of a shadow that leaped from a tree on their left and flew over to a tree to their right. It moved so close behind them that Misty could've sworn that it touched her back. She hugged Togepi tighter for insurance.

"What was that?" asked Ash, scarred.

"I don't know," said Brock.

The group stood still. Waiting for something to pop out of nowhere and land right in front of them.

Then, another shadow leaped out of a tree on their right and flew right in front of them with amazing speed and landed in the woods to their right, disappearing from sight.

"I don't like this. That was way too close," said Brock and reached for a Poke ball.

However, when he reached for one, there where none.

"What?! My Pokemon are gone!" said Brock.

Misty was about to grab her bag, but when she reached for it, it was gone too.

"They took mine too!" said Misty, fear in her voice. Then, she remembered that she was able to use both of her hands. "They took Togepi too!"

"Who took them?" asked Ash, scanning around.

He looked at the trees, but there were shadows all over them from the dawning of the sun. He looked at the trail, but there was just grass and dirt everywhere.

"Show yourself! We know you're here!" shouted Ash, trying to bring the thefts out.

Pikachu got onto all fours, getting ready for anything and letting small amounts of electricity out of its cheeks. Ash got in the same stance, hoping that he could fight in this body, but had doubt.

Silent minutes went by. There was a small breeze that moved the leaves, but that was the only audible noise. That and Ash's breathing.

The sun was almost completely gone and so was the light. Darkness consumed the trees and the trail. Pikachu's and Ash's eyes quickly adjusted, but Misty's and Brock's took a little longer.

After what seemed like hours of waiting, Ash got back on his two back feet and made another scan.

Still no one around.

He took one step forward.

Immediately, a man and a woman both wearing white pants and a white shirt with a large letter R in the middle jumped in front of the group with metal wires connected to their backs.

"To protect the world from devastation."

"To unite all peoples within our nation."

"To announce the evils of truth and love."

"To withstand our reach to the stars above."

"Jessie," said the woman and took a step forward.

"James," said the man and also took a step forward.

"Team Rocket! Blasting off at the speed of light!" said Jessie proudly and snapped off the wire.

"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!" said James who also snapped off the wire.

Then, out of the darkness popped out a Meowth, who said, "Meowth! That's right!"

"Team Rocket! Not you again!" said Brock with a clenched fist.

Jessie smiled.

"That's right twerps! And now we have an advantage!" said Jessie and held up Misty's bag.

"Hey! Give me back my bag and Togepi!" Misty shouted.

Jessie pulled the bag back towards her chest, as if to protect it from their owners. James held a belt filled with other Poke balls while Meowth held Togepi in his paws.

"Sorry," said Jessie with a smirk on her face. "But you'll have to get them from me first."

"But you can't do that without any of your own Pokemon!" said Meowth.

Togepi started crying in Meowth's paws, so Meowth had to shut his mouth and tried to rock Togepi in his arms.

"Now hand over that Pikachu!" demanded James.

"Wait," started Brock. "If you could've took all of our Pokemon, why didn't you get Pikachu like before?"

Jessie opened her mouth and held up a finger to explain, but nothing came out of her mouth. She turned to James with her finger still held.

"James, why didn't we get Pikachu?" she asked.

James did the exact same thing Jessie did before: Opened his mouth, but no words came out. Both partners were dumbstruck and looked down at Meowth for help, who was too busy trying to get the crying Togepi quiet.

Meowth felt their gaze and looked up at them.

"What? Can't you see tat I'm busy here?" asked Meowth, still rocking Togepi in his arms.

"Why did we get the twerps' Pokemon first before getting Pikachu?" asked James.

Meowth was about to answer, but Togepi started crying even louder and forced Meowth to rock faster.

Jessie got annoyed that the question wasn't answered, so she slapped Meowth across the back of his head.

"Stop messing with that thing, Meowth!" shouted Jessie.

The slam of the back of her hand sent Meowth to the ground and caused him to drop Togepi. The small, young Pokemon quickly crawled out of Meowth's grasp and ran back over to its mother, Misty.

Meowth staggered back up and noticed that Togepi was gone and tried to retrieve it again, but Pikachu quickly stepped in front of Meowth, blocking him.

"So, you still want to fight, eh?" asked Meowth, enlarging his claws across Pikachu's face to show their length.

Ash couldn't take this any longer. Team Rocket finally had their Pokemon, but he and Pikachu still have a chance of getting them back.

"Pikachu! U-" Ash was cut off by Misty's hand which was slammed over his mouth.

All of the members of Team Rocket looked at Ash, as if just noticing that he was there.

"Hey! Looks like the twerps got themselves another Pikachu," said Jessie. She slowly pulled out her Poke ball.

"Wait, Jess. Do a head count," said James.

The two extended their index fingers and pointed at Misty, then Brock, in a counting motion.

"Looks like the twerps got rid of that kid with the hat and replaced him with another Pikachu," said James.

"It doesn't matter to me, just as long as I get both of those Pikacus!" said Jessie.

"You know what they say: The more, the merrier!" said James while taking out his own Poke ball.

Ash tensed. He can't take on all of Team Rocket by himself and neither could Misty and Brock. The only one who could fight off Team Rocket was Pikachu, but could it do it all by itself?

"Go, Arbok!" shouted Jessie while throwing out her Poke ball and releasing the Pokemon inside.

"You go too, Weezing!" shouted James and threw his own Poke ball.

Soon, Weezing, Arbok, and Meowth were all looking down at Ash and Pikachu, ready to attack.

"Pikachu, use thundershock!" commanded Misty, still pushing her hand over Ash's mouth to keep him quiet.

Pikachu looked back at Misty. It obviously wasn't used to Misty giving it instructions, but obeyed them nonetheless.

Pikachu ran up to Team Rocket's Pokemon and released a huge wave of thunder out of its body. The yellow wave of thunder ran out of Pikachu's cheeks and traveled across the sky towards the three Pokemon.

Meowth smiled and pulled out a large controller out of nowhere and pressed a button on it.

Out of the top of the controller, some purple ooze crawled out and oozed up into the sky, around Meowth and the other Pokemon. Soon, the purple ooze made a large screen in front of Team Rocket and hardened before Pikachu's thunder even reached it.

The yellow wave of thunder raced across the sky and slammed on the purple screen. The thunder pounded on the screen, but nothing happened to it. It did not collapse, it did not crumble, it did not melt, it just stood there as if nothing happened to it.

"Try all you want, but nuttin is getting trew this shield. Nuttin comes in, but somthin can come out," said Meowth.

After hearing that, Pikachu stopped its electricity and braced itself.

"Arbok, use poison sting!" commanded Jessie.

The tall snake opened up its mouth and shot out small bullets of poison at Pikachu.

Pikachu rolled over to dodge the attack, but the poison kept coming, so Pikachu was forced to continue dodging.

"Weezing, use smoke screen!" commanded James.

The purple, hovering Pokemon tilted its head down and opened its mouth. A thick, black smoke oozed out of its mouth and crept to the ground around Pikachu and the others.

In a matter of seconds, the smoke covered everything, and that with the combination of the setting darkness made it almost impossible to see.

Pikachu started coughing from all of the smoke along with the others. Soon, Arbok's poison sting attack came back at it again through the smoke.

Pikachu didn't see it, so the poison sting shot right at it and made it cry in pain. Ash could hear the cry, but couldn't see Pikachu anywhere through the smoke.

"Pikachu!" shouted Ash, trying to find his friend, but all he heard was another "AR!" from Arbok with another cry of pain from Pikachu.

Ash looked up to Misty and Brock, trying to get some ideas.

"Do something!" said Ash, almost angrily.

Misty turned to Brock, but Brock looked away. Neither of them knew what to do.

Ash couldn't take it any longer. He got down on all four of his small, unknown, Pikachu legs and ran deeper into the smoke.

"Wait! Ash! Stop!" shouted Misty and ran after Ash.

"Misty, don't- . . ." Brock gave a small grunt of disapproval, then ran into the smoke himself.

Ash heard another cry of pain from Pikachu.

"Chu!" cried the Pokemon.

"Pikachu! Hang in there!" shouted back Ash.

He looked around, but there was nothing but smoke to see. Why hasn't it cleared yet?

He couldn't see the purple screen anywhere in the smoke. Maybe Team Rocket put it away?

Just as he thought that, Ash heard Pikachu again, then a loud mechanical SNAP! Soon after, the thick smoke began to clear up and revealed Team Rocket and no screen.

But this time, Team Rocket held Pikachu in a small glass container. The yellow mouse tried another thundershock, but it didn't affect the glass.

"Ha! Looks like we finally won!" said Jessie, triumphantly.

"YAY!" The three jumped in the air while punching out their fists.

Ash couldn't let them take Pikachu away from him. He ran over to Team Rocket and jumped in the air and at Jessie, who was holding Pikachu.

Jessie was too busy celebrating with her victory that she didn't notice Ash coming at her.

Ash flew towards her arm and sunk his new, sharper teeth into her flesh.

"OW!" shouted Jessie after she felt the pain.

She looked at Ash and started swinging her arm around in an attempt to swing Ash off her arm.

"Get this thing off of me!" shouted Jessie again. "Arbok, get it off!"

The snake Pokemon came up to Jessie's swinging arm. Jessie stopped her arm and held it out with Ash on it through tears of pain.

Arbok opened its mouth, getting ready to sink its own poisonous teeth into Ash's flesh. Ash didn't know what to do. He had no Pokemon to help him, he still had no idea of how this new body works, and even if he could get away from Arbok right now, he would have to deal with it later and Team Rocket might end up hurting the others.

Ash held onto the arm with his teeth while closing his eyes and bracing himself.

Arbok's mouth sped over to Ash's back, fangs baring. However, right when the snake Pokemon was about to make contact with Ash's back, the teenager popped out of nowhere and landed a hard roundhouse kick on its head.

The Arbok recoiled, surprised from the attack and weakened from the kick.

"What the?" stammered James.

The teenager turned around and faced Team Rocket. His raised his hands in clenched fists and placed them over his chest and head. Ash let go of Jessie's arm and ran behind his friends for safety.

"You dare fight our Pokemon with your hands?" mocked Jessie. "This will be fun. Arbok, use poison sting!"

"Weezing, use tackle!"

Arbok opened its mouth and released the bullets of poison at the teenager while Weezing zoomed after him.

The teenager caught Weezing while it was trying to tackle him and used its body as a shield for Arbok's poison sting. That forced Arbok to stop so that not to do any further damage to Weezing.

After Arbok stopped its attack, the teenager pulled back a fist and slammed it on Weezing's head (the bigger one) which sent it flying towards Arbok.

"Arbok, dodge it!" commanded Jessie.

Arbok moved its head to the side as Weezing flew by and missed it. Its gaze followed Weezing until Weezing was able to stop itself in midair. Arbok turned it head back to face the teenager, but just to meet the heel of his shoe in its face. That sent the snake Pokemon to the ground right next to Jessie.

Jessie growled.

"Arbok, get back in there and get that twerp!" she shouted.

Arbok slowly got back up, shook off the pain, and dash back at the teen.

Its head flew at the teen, but he jumped to the side and avoided it.

"Arbok, use wrap!"

Arbok slithered around the teen until its whole tail was in a circle around him. Then, almost instantly, the tail coiled and constricted around the teen's body.

The teenager wiggled and struggled to get out of the bone crushing wrap, but nothing worked. Arbok kept constricting its tail tighter and tighter every second, pushing the teens breath out of his own chest.

"Ash," said Misty. Team Rocket's attention was completely on the teen that they didn't even notice the other twerps. "We have to help him. He's trying to save us, but is getting hurt in the process!"

"But what can we do?" asked Brock, from beside them. "Team Rocket has all of our Pokemon, and we can't do any of that stuff this kid is doing."

Ash looked at both of his friends, then back at the teenager that was getting his life sucked out of.

What could they do? He couldn't do anything. He can't even do a thundershock like Pikachu can. Pretty much the only move (if you want to call it that) he knows is bite, and that's only from instinct.

"Weezing, use tackle again!" commanded James, wanting to get in the action.

Weezing zoom again at the teen, this time actually hitting him because he was stuck in the wrap.

Weezing kept slamming its body against the teen's head (which was the only visible body part) while Arbok kept constricting tighter that ever before.

"Well, I guess tis 'wraps' tings up!" said Meowth and started laughing at his joke.

Weezing continued its tackle attacks at the teen's head, but as Ash looked harder, he noticed that the teen's expression wasn't only pain, but annoyance.

"Okay," started the teen. "Now you're really starting to tick me off!"

The teen started to struggle out, but this time with much more strength than before. Arbok was starting to have trouble trying to hold onto him.

Ash could see the teen's arms slowly moving farther and farther apart from his body. The wrap was starting to break!

Then, Arbok's entire tail was flung away as the teen's arms flew up. Weezing came in for another tackle, but the teen dodged it and spun around with another roundhouse kick to Weezing's back.

Weezing flew over to a tree, bounced off, then flew over to James, knocking him over. Jessie was nearly missed, but even that didn't make her happy.

"Arbok!" shouted Jessie, more angrier than before. "Use poison fang and get this twerp!"

Arbok opened its mouth again and dashed for the teen.

The teen quickly grabbed the end of Arbok's tail and heaved it up. Ash saw his muscles tighten and grow suddenly, as if on command.

Before Arbok was able to bite the teenager, he started swinging Arbok's tail around.

Arbok closed its mouth as its entire body was being swung in circles by the teen. The teen kept swinging it, this time so close to Team Rocket that they were caught by the swinging Arbok and was being swung with it.

Jessie couldn't hold onto Pikachu because of the strong circular motion and let go of it.

Because of the release from the circular force of the swinging Arbok, the container that Pikachu was in flew over to a tree and broke upon impact, freeing it.

Pikachu fell to the ground beneath the tree, quickly got back up and ran back over to his best friend, Ash.

"Pikapi!"

"Pikachu! Your okay!" said Ash and ran over to his companion.

The teen kept swinging Arbok around and around and around and around, going faster by each turn, until he fianlly let go of the Arbok and sent it flying up into the night sky along with Team Rocket.

As Team Rocket flew into the air, Ash could hear the distant cry of, "Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" Soon followed with a small glint of light, then nothing more.

Ash ran over to Pikachu and embraced it with a hug, which it returned.

Then, Ash let go of Pikachu and looked back at the teenager, who was looked up at were Team Rocket flew away.

From out of the sky, all of Misty's Brock's and Ash's Poke balls fell and landed on the ground. However, when each Poke ball hit the ground, it released the Pokemon inside.

When one Poke ball fell out of the sky, hit the ground, and opened, Onix came out, but right over where the gang stood. Right on the air above them.

Onix didn't stay in the air long. There was the Laws of Motion that had to be placed, which made Onix fall right on top of Ash and the others.

Before Ash was knocked out of consciousness, he could hear the teen saying, "Oops. . ."


	2. Chapter 2

Hocus Pocus 1½ chapter 2

Ash opened his eyes. He was laying down on his back with an unzipped sleeping bag over his body, looking up at the sky. It was morning, and the sun was out.

"What happened?" Ash asked himself, trying to recall what happened on the earlier day.

Ash tried to get up, but noticed that it was much harder to get up than usual. He wondered why, then looked at his hand.

It was small and yellow.

Immediately all of the past events that had occurred popped back into Ash's head as he realized what had happened.

Ash quickly took a glance around. He had apparently slept on the trail between the two forests that the group walked on yesterday. Misty and Brock were laying down with sleeping bags covering them on the other side of Ash while Pikachu (also had an unzipped sleeping bag over it like a blanket) was huddled up into a small, yellow ball across from Ash.

And then there was the teenager, the exact same one that saved Pikachu and the rest of their Pokemon from Team Rocket. He was asleep too, but he didn't have anything covering him or keeping him warm (except his clothes of course).

Ash took his sleeping bag off and walked over to the teenager. He still wondered who this person was and how he was able to do everything he had just done. Why did he help them and why did he leave when they saved him?

Ash walked up next to the teenager's head. He could see that bruises and scratches were all over the teen's body from trying to fight with Team Rocket's Arbok.

Ash put both of his paws on the teen's head and started moving it around in an attempt to wake him, and not the others. When the teen didn't wake up, Ash started moving the head more aggressively and with more motion.

Finally, the teen's eyes started to lift and Ash stopped moving his head and took his paws off. The teen opened his eyes fully and tried to sit up straight, but then flinched from pain of doing so. The teen lifted his back off of the ground and wrapped his arm underneath his back and pulled out a rock. Quite a pointy rock.

The teen groaned at the realization then threw the rock away. He then sat up straight and saw Ash.

"Well, hello there little fella," said the teen.

"Hi, my name's Ash," said Ash while extending his paw for a hand shake.

The teen looked shocked.

"Wow, so you can talk! That's gotta be the first time I've ever seen a talking Pikachu!" said the teen, astounded.

After hearing what the teen said, Ash looked sheepish as he realized what he had just done. _"And most Pokemon can't talk, especially a Pikachu!"_ Misty's words repeated inside Ash's head. He had probably made one of his worst mistakes of his life.

"What's wrong . . . um . . . Ash?" asked the teen, remembering Ash's name. "Heh. That's a weird kind of nickname to give to a Pokemon, sounds more like a person's name."

Ash wasn't sure whether to talk again or to just stay quiet. This person already knows that he can talk, so what should he do?

"Hey, looks like yer friends are waking up too," said the teen.

Misty, Brock, and Pikachu were starting to stir in their sleep until they finally woke up. Soon, they all sat up straight and were remembering the past events like Ash did. For some reason it felt like a weird dream to everyone.

"Good mornin'!" said the teen, getting their attention. "I would just like to ask ya'll how ya'll were able to get this Pikachu to talk."

Ash quickly tried to cover the teen's mouth with his paws before he said it, but he was too late. Misty heard what he said. In only a matter of seconds, her face turned red with anger.

"Ash, you idiot! I told you about not talking to other people!" out bursted Misty, despite just awaking from her sleep.

The teen looked confused.

"Why? Is it a bad thing that a Pikachu can talk?" he asked.

Misty, suddenly remembering that the teenager was right next to her, turned her head towards him and tried to cover up what she was saying.

"Um . . . it's nothing. . . We just . . . um . . ."

"We're just still trying to teach it to only talk to some family members," said Brock, trying to cover up for Misty. "We . . . um . . . want to surprise my grandmother. Her birthday is coming up and I want to show her a talking Pikachu as one of her presents."

The teen look surprised, then hesitant. He turned towards Ash, then back at Brock.

Finally, he nodded his head in understanding.

"That would surprise anyone, if you ask me. But, how did you teach this guy how to talk?" asked the teen.

Brock was caught off guard on this question and started stammering random sounds.

"I . . . um . . . well . . . you see . . ." kept going Brock.

"We can't tell you," said Misty.

All heads turned towards her.

"It's a secret," said Misty, sheepishly in front of so many eyes.

The teen shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess I could understand that," said the teen. "Oh! I'm so sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. My name's Colby."

"Colby?!" said Ash, astounded. "That's a nice name."

"I'm Misty."

"I'm Brock."

"Pikachu!"

"I'm Ash, but you already know that."

Colby smiled.

"Well, it's nice to meet ya'll, but do you mind me askin' who those two in white were doing?"

Soon, the whole gang where recalling the past events to explain who and what Team Rocket were and what they were trying to do. They told about how their Pokemon (except Pikachu) was stolen from them and made them almost completely defenseless.

Colby sat there, listening to every word and nodding his head every time he understood whatever they said to him, and occasionally asked a question or two.

"So this 'Team Rocket' wants to steal everyone's Pokemon?" asked Colby.

"Sort of. They mostly want to steal rare and strong Pokemon, but the two that you saw yesterday are simply desperate for any Pokemon," explained Brock.

"Hm," mumbled Colby while nodding his head again. "And those two . . . what were their names again?"

"Jessie and James," said Misty.

"Yeah, those two were mostly after your two Pikachus?" asked Colby.

Everyone nodded their heads.

"Sheesh," sighed Colby. "What has this world come to? Anyway, I'm glad that you and your Pokemon are safe. Oh, and before I forget, there was this one Pokemon with this white, spotted shell over itself —"

"That's Togepi!" realized Misty and started looking around frantically for the baby Pokemon. "Where is it?"

"I was getting to that," said Colby. "As I was saying, I saw that one Pokemon and didn't know what to do with it, so I put it in your bag. For some reason it seemed to like being in there."

Misty quickly rummaged through her sleeping bag and around where she slept until she found the red bag next to Brock. She quickly opened the bag and pulled out Togepi.

"Togepi! I'm so glad you're safe!" said Misty and hugged the small creature.

Togepi started rolling its tung inside its mouth with a "ppppiiii" of happiness and returned the hug.

Brock turned his attention back to Colby.

"What did you do with all of our other Pokemon?" he asked.

"Well, it took awhile, but I was able to get them all back in their Poke Balls and put them in her bag," said Colby while pointing to Misty's red bag. "When I got that Onix off of ya'll, I found that bag. I got the sleeping bags out of it and used them to cover all of ya'll. There wasn't one for me, so . . ." Colby rubbed his back from where the rock he laid on used to be.

Misty looked down at her sleeping bag.

"Well, um, thanks, Colby, but why did you help us get away from Team Rocket?" asked Misty.

"Oh. Well . . . it's kinda like an instinct for me to help people, almost like an involuntary thing. Whenever I see someone that needs help, I just have to help them," explained Colby. "Besides, ya'll helped me from that D Squad yesterday."

"'D Squad'? Were that those three that ganged up on you?" asked Brock.

Colby nodded yet again.

"Uh, huh. They're just these group of kids that think they're all-that. Pretty much, their rules are: If you do something they're not doing or if you're getting in their way, then they will beat you down."

"So, what did you do?" asked Ash.

Colby looked back down at Ash.

"They wanted to steal some supplies from our Pokecenter, but I just couldn't let them do that. So, what I did was that I called the police and warned the nurse at the Pokecenter. However, while I was doing that, one of those D Squad kids saw me and went and told their boss. Soon enough, I realized that three of them were following me and meant business, and that's kinda how I met all of ya'll."

Colby extended a hand over Ash's head and started petting him. Before, Ash wouldn't have liked to have been petted on the head like this, but now, in this new body, it felt . . . relaxing somehow.

Ash could've sworn that if he knew how to pur, he would be doing it right now.

"You know, I always wanted a Pikachu, but you can never find them in any of these parts. They're so cool and strong. Where did you get yours?" asked Colby, talking to Misty.

"Pikachu was my star —" started Ash, but was stopped with Misty's strong throwing arm and a Poke Ball.

"Ash, return!" said Misty quickly.

The Poke Ball slammed right onto Ash's forehead and tumbled him to the ground. The Poke Ball opened and , as it did, Ash turned into a bright red beam of light. Then, the red beam of light circled around and was sucked into the Poke Ball, which closed as soon as the light was inside it.

The Poke Ball fell down to the ground, but had a red dot at the center of it, telling whether or not the Pokemon inside was caught.

"It looks more like you're trying to catch him than return him," said Colby.

Brock knew what Misty was trying to do, so he tried to distract Colby.

"Uh, hey Colby! Tell me how you know how to fight so well!" said Brock, trying to get the teen's attention.

Colby turned away from the Poke Ball with Ash inside of it and faced Brock.

"Oh that? I've been taking martial arts for a couple of years now, I'm even starting to learn wrestling while I'm trying to get my black belt," said Colby.

"You mean, you're not a black belt already?" asked Brock, both out of curiosity and for another mean of distraction.

The Poke Ball kept moving around and the red dot at the center of it continued to blink. Eventually, the Poke Ball burst open and Ash's red light swirled out and formed him again.

"Woah. So, that's how it feels," said Ash to himself.

Ash looked and saw Misty near him. He made an annoyed face at her for throwing the Poke Ball at him.

"Ash," Misty whispered, trying to make use of Brock's distraction. She leaned closer to the once human, Pikachu, so that only he will be able to hear him. "I'm sorry that I tried to get you into a Poke Ball, but you can't keep talking about your human life, otherwise he might find out that you were a human."

Ash looked away.

"Okay. I guess you're right, but did you have to throw a Poke Ball at me? That hurt!" complained Ash.

Misty rolled her eyes and turned around to listen to Colby and Brock's discussion.

"So, have you ever fought anyone, besides everyone from yesterday?" asked Brock.

"Well, no. I've sparred people before. It's kind of the same, but you're supposed to score points by hitting certain spots on your opponent's body, mostly the spots that have protection over them," explained Colby.

"So you mean that what happened yesterday was the first time you've gotten in a real fight?" asked Misty.

Colby pondered about it for a little bit.

"Yeah, I guess it really was," admitted Colby.

"Wow," said Ash, from behind Misty.

Colby turned his head towards Ash. He looked surprised and shocked again at seeing a Pikachu talking.

"I'm sorry, but I just can't get used to that." Colby chuckled a little bit after his remark.

"I can stop talking if you want," suggested Ash.

Colby smiled.

"Nah, it's fine. Besides, I like it when people ask questions about me and comment," said Colby.

"Really? Well in that case, where are you from?"

Colby shifted over to turn his body backwards. From there, he extended his finger towards the other side of the road.

"There's a small town not too far from here. It's called Tay Town, and that's the town I'm from," said Colby.

Brock followed Colby's finger down the road, but didn't see anything.

"But I don't remember any town near here on the map," said Brock.

Colby dropped his finger and shrugged.

"Like I said: It's a small town, probably too small to even be on a map. Pretty much all it's got is a couple of houses and a Pokecenter," explained Colby.

Colby turned his body back around and faced everyone.

"If ya'll need a place to stay for the night, you can stay at my house if you want."

"That's very nice of you, but—"

Misty sentence was stopped by a loud gurgling sound. Everyone looked around for the source of the mysterious noise, but couldn't find anything.

"What is that coming from?" wondered Brock.

"Pikapi," said Pikachu while giggling a little.

The Pikachu was pointing at Ash. His stomach was twisting and turning while making the loud mysterious noise.

"Sorry," said Ash while scratching the back of his head shyly. "I guess I haven't ate anything in awhile."

Colby laughed out loud after hearing Ash, while Misty sighed and grew a small sweat drop of embarrassment on the side of her head.

"Brock, could you cook something up for us? Colby, you should really try Brock's cooking!"

"Okay."

Brock grabbed his own bag that was next to him and fished in it for some food items to cook. Ash stomach growled again and Ash tried to stop it from making the noise by placing his paws over it.

"Brock? Do you have anything good to eat?" asked Ash.

Brock fished a little more in his bag for anything, but stopped and came out empty-handed.

"Sorry guys, but it looks like we're out of food," said Brock.

"Even Pokemon food?" asked Misty.

"Yeah. We're completely out of food."

"Pika . . ." Said Pikachu when its own stomach started growling.

Colby laughed again.

"Well, it looks like ya'll really need to come anyhow. There's a small store in Tay Town, so you might as well restock in everything and rest in a real bed," said Colby.

Brock moved his bag to the side and started rolling up his sleeping bag.

"Seems like we should. What do you think, Misty?" asked Brock.

Misty pondered about it. Should they? They do need food, and a place to stay doesn't sound too bad.

Then, on the other hand, she had no idea when Ash would turn back into a human. For all she knew, he just might change back as soon as they walk into the door. Then, Colby might see him and will ask questions, then he would tell others about it.

Ash stomach ripped Misty from her thoughts as it growled again, soon to be followed by Pikachu's own stomach growl.

"All right," said Misty, putting her hands up. "Why not?"

"Good!" said Colby, smiling. "The town's only a couple of miles away. We should reach it in about an hour or two."

"Okay, but we need you to do us a favor, Colby," said Misty.

"Sure, anything . . . um . . . what was your name again? Sorry, but it takes me a long time to remember everyone's name," said Colby.

"It's Misty, and don't worry about it. But, we need you to promise us that you wont tell anyone that our Pikachu, Ash, can talk."

Colby gave a confused look.

"Why?"

Misty looked away and scratch the back of her neck, trying to gain some time to think of some explanation. Ash kept rubbing his stomach in an attempt to calm it down while Pikachu awaited Misty's answer along with Colby and Brock.

Misty stayed quiet. She just couldn't think up of anything. Lying wasn't her thing.

Colby noticed that it was taking her awhile to talk, so he took it as a personal issue.

"If you don't want to tell me, that's fine," he said.

Misty twisted her head back to face him, shocked and surprised at him.

"R-really?" she said.

"Sure. I can understand secrets and promises," said Colby. "Don't worry. I promise not to tell anyone about this. Now, lets get going before these two explode from starvation."

Colby laughed, and as did everyone else.

* * *

"Colby?" asked Brock.

"Yeah?"

The gang had been walking for about half an hour, following the teenager down the road.

Ash walked beside Pikachu, who walked beside Misty, who was holding Togetpi and walking next to Brock, who (finally) was walking next to Colby.

"Back when we saved you from the 'D-Squad', where did you go?" asked Brock.

"What?" asked Colby.

"Remember when those three dressed in gray where chasing you? You called them the D-Squad. Remember when we saved you from them?" reminded Brock.

Colby pondered for a little bit, then gave a loud "Oh!" sound.

"Sorry, I was kinda spaced out there for a second and forgot about the whole thing. Yeah, after ya'll helped me with those three, I really wanted to thank ya'll, but I had to go at the time," said Colby.

"Go where?" asked Ash, listening to their conversation.

"Bathroom."

There was a small silence.

"Pika?" asked Pikachu.

Colby laughed.

"I don't have to understand Pokemon talk to know what it said. Yeah, even people like me have to go, especially after such a battle," explained Colby.

Everyone laughed at that remark, even Togepi.

Ash looked over at Colby.

"I don't know why, but for some reason I can't help but think that you are going to write out my future, almost like a book of some kind," he said.

"Really?" asked Colby.

"Yeah, and I keep getting this feeling that you're going to do something drastic, like give me a child or something."

"Why do you think that?" asked Colby.

Ash shrugged.

"I don't really know."

Then, the small egg Pokemon looked ahead and saw something. It gave a small shriek of joy and tried to tell its mother.

"Togepi! Pi! Toge!" said the small Pokemon in Misty's arms.

Misty didn't have to know Pokemon language either, for she saw it too. It was the town that Colby was talking about.

"Pikapi! Pikachu chu!" said Pikachu while standing up on two feet and pointing.

The town had very few houses and even less roads. The only thing noticeable was a Pokecenter near the end of the town, which had all kinds of different Pokemon running around it.

Inside the town, they could see kids of all ages running around with other kids or other Pokemon, playing with each other and having fun outside.

When the gang finally got to the town, they walked over to the Pokecenter to get their Pokemon healed and ready for whatever might happen the next day.

"Hello there!" said the Nurse Joy happily. "How may I help you today?"

Misty was about to answer, but was pushed aside by Brock.

"Yes, you can help me, my beautiful rose! Can you fix this small heart of mine? It can only be fix with your love. It will bring me such happiness if you were to agree to be with me always!" said Brock with starry eyes.

The nurse was taken aback by what Brock said and wasn't sure of what to say next. She stood there, staring at Brock as if he was trying to play a joke or something.

Then Misty got back and slapped Brock across the back of his head, sending him straight to the ground. After that, she grabbed him on the back of his collar and hauled him away.

Joy still was in shock and confusion. She wasn't sure whether to thank the man that said she was beautiful, or to yell at him for trying to ask her out in such a manner.

"Sorry about that," said Ash, so used to it was he that he forgot again that he was a Pikachu.

"What was that?" asked Joy, looking around.

Because of Ash's small body, the counter that Joy was at covered him up entirely from view. Ash had just realized his mistake right as Nurse Joy answered back.

"Hello? Who's there?" asked the confused nurse again, this time trying to follow where she heard Ash's voice by bending over the counter.

Quickly, Colby stepped in front of Joy with a smile on his face.

"I'm sorry, what was it?" asked Colby.

Joy looked up and got off her counter.

"I could've sworn that I heard someone just now," said the nurse.

"Well," said Colby, picking up Ash off the ground. "The only people here right now is me and this little Pikachu, along with his friends."

Colby placed Ash on the counter to prove to the nurse that what he said was true. Joy examined Ash closely, trying to figure out her mystery.

Soon, she shrugged and picked up Ash.

"That's a cute little hat you're wearing. Well, this Pikachu seems fine to me. I don't think healing him will be necessary," said Joy.

"Okay, that's good, but what about this one?" asked Colby while lifting up Pikachu.

Nurse Joy examined Pikachu for a little bit and nodded her head.

"This one seems fine, but has a few minor cuts and bruises. I'll have it treated right away."

Then, Joy picked up Pikachu and walked away with it.

Colby leaned down to Ash's ear and whispered into it.

"You know that your trainer ain't going to be very happy if she finds out that you were talking again," he whispered.

_Trainer?! _Thought Ash.

"Sorry. Sometimes things just come out," whispered back Ash.

"True," admitted Colby. "Also, about that other guy . . . what's his name? . . . Brock! Yeah, that's it. Does he do that with every girl he comes by?"

Ash nodded his head.

"After awhile, you get used to it," said Ash.

After Ash was done talking, he noticed that Misty was walking back over to the counter that he sat on.

"Alright . . . took care of him," said Misty while pointing a thumb behind her where Brock sat.

Colby smiled and chuckled.

"Alright, good," he said. "Hey, could you watch Ash for me? I've got to do something real quick. Is that okay?"

"Um, sure," said Misty.

Colby nodded his head and walked away to the other side of the Pokecenter.

Nurse Joy soon came back with Pikachu in her hands.

"Here you are! Your Pikachu is all better now," said Joy with a warm smile.

Pikachu leaped from Joy's arms and over to Ash and gave him an hug, who returned it gracefully.

"Pikachu!" said Ash. He knew saying that would be okay.

"Pikapi!" said his best friend.

Nurse Joy smiled at seeing the two cute Pikachus embrace.

"Is there anything else I can help you with?" she asked Misty.

Misty looked up, away from Ash and Pikachu, and at Nurse Joy.

"Yes, could you heal these other Pokemon too?" she asked while taking out all of the Poke Balls from her bag. "And could we get something to eat? We ran out of food on the trail, so we're kind of hungry," said Misty.

Nurse Joy smiled again and nodded her head.

After Nurse Joy took the Pokemon, she gave them a place to sit and some food to eat. Misty, Brock, and Pikachu ate to their fill, but Ash, however, didn't eat a thing.

"Ash, why haven't you eaten anything? Just a few hours ago, you said you where starving. I even heard your stomach growl!" complained Misty at seeing Ash's full plate.

"But, Misty," wined Ash. "This isn't food! I'm not used to this kind of food."

As he talked, he pointed down to his full plate of Pokeblocks mixed with other Pokemon foods.

Pikachu was sitting next to Ash and had already finished its plate.

"Pikapi, pikachu pika pikachu chu pi," said Pikachu.

"I know you're used to this, but I'm used to people food," said Ash.

"Have you even tried it yet?" asked Brock.

Ash looked down at his plate with a "No."

Then, with a sigh, Ash grabbed a small Pokeblock from the plate. He gave it a sniff, then a tip-of-the-tung lick, and finally took a small bite out of it.

He chewed slowly, ever so slowly. Then, he finally swallowed.

Brock leaned a bit forward over the table.

"Well?" he asked.

Ash smacked is lips. . .

Then, started stuffing his face with all of the Pokefood he could find.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," said Brock, sitting back.

"Pika," said Pikachu.

Misty felt a little embarrassed with the way Ash was eating. She looked away from the mass of Pokefood spiraling everywhere and saw Colby walked up to their table.

"Hey guys," greeted Colby.

He looked over and saw Ash eating.

"Well, I guess he was hungry," laughed Colby. "Hey, I want to show ya'll something. Do ya'll want to come?"

Misty looked back at Ash.

"We can as soon as Ash is done eating," she said.

Then, right when Misty said that, Ash grabbed another large Pokeblock in his haste and stuffed it in his mouth, whole. He tried to swallow it, forgetting to chew, but instead started choking on it.

He started gaging and his face turned purple. Pikachu got up and did the hemlock on Ash.

"Chu!" Pikachu squeezed Ash's stomach.

Ash gaged again.

"Chu!" Pikachu squeezed again, this time even tighter.

Ash gaged once again. Now his face was turning blue, even though his new body was yellow.

"CHU!" This time, Pikachu squeezed with all its might and let out a small electric burst into Ash.

Ash coughed up the food, which propelled its way across the Pokecenter and through a glass window. Soon after the glass broke, Ash could barely hear a man scream, which was quickly followed by a soft THUD that one hears when someone falls to the ground.

After seeing this and hearing the glass shatter, Colby quickly clapped his hands together.

"And that means that we should get out of here."


	3. Chapter 3

Hocus Pocus 1½ Chapter 3

Colby, Misty, Brock, Pikachu, and the Pikachu who was Ash exited out the side of the Pokecenter, away from the commotion that Ash had just made.

When they walked out of earshot, Colby stopped. He turned towards everyone and burst out laughing.

"You gotta admit! That was pretty funny!" laughed Colby.

"More like embarrassing," whispered Misty to herself.

Brock moved over to Colby.

"Colby, didn't you say that you wanted to show us something?" asked Brock.

Colby stopped laughing.

"Oh yeah! Here, follow me," said Colby, and turned and walked away.

The others followed him.

* * *

Colby led them into a small woods on the other side of the town. It wasn't a very dense forest, the tress were scattered, but were still numerous.

The gang, led by Colby, walked over to a small clearing far away from the town.

Colby first looked around, as if checking, then lifted his mouth up into the air and shouted.

"Okay, buddy! Come on out!" shouted Colby.

Everyone waited. Misty expected some trap to pop out of nowhere at any second, but silence remained.

At first, nothing happened. Ash tried to use his new ears to hear if someone or if something was coming, but couldn't hear anything besides the wind.

Some leaves rustled . . .

The wind whistled . . .

The trees swayed . . .

Some bug Pokémon buzzed by far away . . .

Suddenly, a bright flash appeared right next to where Colby stood. The suddenness of the flash startled Ash and the gang, making them all jump back.

Pikachu got in its stance, getting ready for the worst. Ash stood next to his partner while covering his eyes from the flash.

The white flash only lasted for about two seconds, then was replaced with a creature of some sort. It was tall, stood on two legs, brown, had a long mustache under its nose, two arms, and bore a small star on its head. A large Alakazam was now standing next to Colby.

Colby turned his head over to the Alakazam, but didn't seem surprised at all to have seen it.

"Took you awhile. Did you have to make it so dramatic?" asked Colby with a smile.

The Alakazam looked up at Colby and smiled back, embarrassed.

Colby turned back to face the others.

"Everyone, this is my friend, Alakazam. He is my Pokémon," said Colby.

Ash, by mere instinct, reached for his Pokédex in his pocket. However, when his hand just touched his yellow, furry side, he made a small groan and pulled his hand away.

"An Alakazam?" asked Ash, knowing that he no longer had his Pokédex with him in his new body.

The Alakazam looked down at Ash, surprised.

"Alaka?" it said.

"I was shocked too," said Colby.

Brock, after recovering from the flash of the teleport, eyed the Pokémon.

"You are a trainer too?" he asked Colby.

"Not exactly," said Colby. "You see, I don't think that I'm quite ready to go on my journey just yet. Me and Alakazam are still training for that big day when we leave."

Misty rubbed her eyes.

"I never knew that Teleport was so bright," she said.

Colby laughed.

"No, it's not. That's just Alakazam wanting to make a big appearance," he said while nudging Alakazam in the shoulder.

Alakazam brushed him off with another embarrassed smile.

Ash studied the Pokémon the same way he used to. He hasn't battled many psychic types, and the one that he remembers the most is the gym leader, Sabrina. That was one of the hardest battles he had (except for when he had to get Haunter), but in the end, he loved it just as much as his other battles that he had fought in.

Ash still had that same urge now that he always had whenever he met a fellow trainer, the urge to compete and see who's Pokémon was truly stronger, and he was so used to giving into that one urge.

"Hey, Colby," said Ash. "Lets see how good your Alakazam really is!"

"Ash!" started Misty.

Colby seemed shocked again, even his Pokémon looked amazed.

"If I hadn't known any better, I would've said that you wanted to battle me, little guy," said Colby.

"He doesn't," said Misty, quickly. "I do!"

Colby and Ash both looked up at her. For a second, Ash was slightly jealous and wanted to object, but remembered why Misty said that and kept his mouth shut.

"Well then," said Colby, getting in his stance. "Bring it on!"

Misty got in her stance, ready to battle, and pulled out a Pokéball from her belt. She pressed the white button at the center of the ball, enlarging it.

"Alright, I choose —"

"Ash!"

Ash had interrupted Misty before she was able to send out one of her own Pokémon, and instead shouted his own name out so that it sounded like she chose him.

Ash got down on all fours and jumped in front of Misty, ready for anything.

"Ash," whispered Misty down to the Pikachu, discreetly. "I was trying to cover you up!"

Ash looked back at Misty.

"I know, but if you wont let me battle, then I'll do it myself," said Ash while facing Alakazam. "I just have to battle him somehow, even if it means that it's me that's doing it. Besides, I'm a Pikachu now! I can battle!"

Misty sighed. She knew that when it came to battling, Ash's stubbornness takes control of him.

"Alright, fine. What moves can you do?" asked Misty.

Ash paused. He turned his head back over to Misty, his face was filled with shock.

"I never thought that far . . ."

"Alakazam!" shouted Colby. "Psybeam, now!"

Alakazam placed one of his hands in front of him. It started glowing, then shot out a beam of energy right at Ash.

"Ash, dodge it!" shouted Misty.

Ash leaped over to the side, barely being missed by the beam.

The beam slammed into the ground, digging in and making a large hole. Alakazam stopped its beam and tried again, this time aiming his hand wherever Ash was.

It fired again. Ash waited until the last possible second then jumped over to the side again, dodging it.

"Alakazam, use Psychic!" shouted Colby.

Alakazam's eyes started glowing and soon Ash's body was surrounded by a thin layer of light. Ash's body slowly moved up into the air and levitated there. Then, just as Alakazam turned his head, Ash's body moved along with its gaze and slammed into a nearby tree.

As soon as Ash's body hit the tree, the light around him vanished and gravity brought Ash back to the ground. He smacked back down on the ground.

Ash slowly staggered back up to his feet.

"This is a little harder than I thought," mumbled Ash.

"What's that?" asked Colby, having seen Ash's lips move.

"Ah . . . Nothing."

"Alright," Colby shrugged. "Alakazam, use Psybeam again while he's down!"

"Ash, dodge it again!" shouted Misty.

Alakazam aimed its hand at Ash once again and fired another psychic beam of energy at him. Ash leaped to the side again, but this time he noticed something.

Whenever Alakazam used Psybeam on Ash, it would move one arm away from its chest, leaving it completely open. Plus, Alakazam's eyes would not leave the beam, which meant that its full attention was completely used to focus on the Psybeam.

It just might work.

"Again!" commanded Colby.

Alakazam pointed his hand and shot out another beam of energy at Ash.

This time, even with the call from Misty to dodge, Ash jumped forward, towards the beam. The beam barely missed Ash again, having had aimed at his original spot.

Ash ran straight towards Alakazam while it was still using its Psybeam. It attention was completely on the beam and it wouldn't even move its eyes to see Ash. Ash ran right at the spot that the psychic Pokémon kept open and unguarded. He ran up and tackled his head right into Alakazam's open stomach, nearly knocking the air out of it.

Alakazam staggered back while covering his stomach that Ash had hit. The Psybeam disappeared as soon as Ash landed his head into the psychic's stomach.

Ash landed back on the ground, smiling at his advantage.

"Use Recover!" shouted Colby.

Ash's smile vanished.

Alakazam's body started glowing yellow for only a few seconds, then stopped. Alakazam looked as healthy as a baby.

"Now, use Psychic again and hit him while he's down!"

Once again, Ash's body was covered with a layer of blue light, which started levitating him.

"Ash! Try using Thundershock!" said Misty.

"I don't know how!" shouted back Ash, sounding panicked.

Ash quickly squinted his eyes and squeezed anything that he had, just like how he had seen Pikachu do it, but nothing happened.

Alakazam moved its head up, towards the sky. Ash's levitating body quickly followed, soaring high up into the sky.

When his body stopped in the air, Ash looked down. He could see the tops of the trees, saw some bird Pokémon pass by, and could even see Misty, Brock, and Pikachu's heads, but they were almost like tiny dots. Ash swallowed in fear.

Alakazam moved his head back down to the ground. Ash flew straight down towards the ground in dangerous speed. The ground seemed to be coming at him rather than him coming at the ground. Ash closed his eyes and braced himself for the impact.

He could feel the wind rush by him, almost telling him the he was going faster and about to get hurt. Ash braced even more, trying to prepare himself.

Then, Ash stopped feeling the wind.

What? Ash didn't feel any pain. He didn't hear a THUMP.

Ash slowly opened one eye to check if he was still falling, but then he noticed that he was only inches from the ground. His body was floating in mid-air when it should've been flat on the hard dirt.

"Alakazam, put him down," said Colby.

The blue light around Ash's body disappeared and Ash landed softly on the ground.

Ash was confused. Why did Colby just stop? He could've won . . .

Ash looked up at Colby. His face was confused and wondering . . . maybe even angered.

"Colby?" asked Ash.

Colby was silent. He stared at Ash for a long time, as if checking that he was really there.

"What kind of Pikachu doesn't know Thundershock?" asked Colby.

Now, everyone else was silent. Ash wasn't sure of what exactly to say. He knew that Colby must have them figured out by now and that another lie wasn't going to save them again.

Misty scratched the back of her head, trying to stall for some time to think of something to say. Brock looked down at the ground, not knowing what to say either.

"Wh—" started Colby, but stopped.

There was a sudden noise of many branches breaking right above them. Soon, three bodies fell down to the ground before the gang. All of them wore white shirts and pants except for the third body which was a Meowth.

"Team Rocket!" said the others.

Jessie slowly got back up to her feet.

"Prepare for . . ." she started, but couldn't talk much after having had fallen so far. "Trouble . . ."

"And make it . . . double . . ." said James, who also had trouble getting back up to his feet.

"What are you three doing here?" asked Colby.

"Hey! We haven't finished the motto yet!" complained Jessie.

She turned around and faced Colby.

"Oh no! It's that Kong-Fu twerp!" shouted Jessie.

"It's not Kong-Fu!" shouted Colby, annoyed. "It's Tae-Kwon-Do! TAE! KWON! DO! Why does everyone think of Kong-Fu or Karate all the time?"

Meowth got back up to its feet as well. It looked over and saw Colby, but then turned and saw his Alakazam next to him.

"How did you know we were here?" asked Brock.

James turned around and faced Brock and Misty.

"Great, the other twerps are here too. We get thrown into a tree and we land right next to both the twerps and the Karate twerp," said James.

"Tae-Kwon-Do!" corrected Colby. "And my name is not 'twerp'!"

"You mean," started Misty. "That this is where you landed when Colby threw all of you?"

Jessie and James looked at each other, pondered about it, then nodded.

"What are the odds of you landing right here where we were battling?" asked Colby.

"I don't know and I don't care," said Jessie.

Meowth jumped up at Jessie, excited.

"Jessie! Look!" said Meowth while pointing at the Alakazam then at Ash and Pikachu. "Two Pikachus plus an Alakazam! The boss will go head-over-heals for these three!"

"Jack-pot!" said James while pulling out his Pokéball.

Colby stepped in front of Alakazam.

"No! If you want to get my Alakazam, then you're going to have to go through me!" shouted Colby.

"If that's the way you want it!" said Jessie while pulling out her own Pokéball.

James and Jessie threw out their Pokéballs out in union, releasing their same Arbok and Weezing again. Jessie was about to shout out a command to Arbok to attack Colby, but Brock stopped her.

"Wait!" shouted Brock.

Ash, Pikachu, Misty, and Brock ran over to Colby's side and got in their stances as well, ready to fight.

"If you're going to fight him, then you'll have to deal with us too!" said Misty.

"Pikachu!" shouted Pikachu, next to Ash.

"Fine then!" said Jessie. "Arbok, use Poison Sting!"

The purple snake moved upward and opened its mouth, releasing thousands of poison bullets hailing toward them.

"Alakazam, Safe Guard!" said Colby.

A blue shield covered the whole gang immediately. The poison bullets "tink"ed off against the shield, not effecting it at all.

Arbok stopped its Poison Sting after knowing that it was useless.

Misty pulled out one of her own Pokéballs and threw it out when Arbok stopped.

"Go, Staryu!" she said as she threw out her Pokéball.

Brock also got out his Pokéball and threw it out, saying, "Go, Vulpix!"

Both Pokéballs hit the ground and opened up, releasing the white beams which formed into their Pokémon.

"Staryu, use Water Gun on Weezing!"

"Vulpix, use Flame Thrower on Arbok!"

Staryu bent down one of its many tips and shot out water at Weezing while Vulpix opened its mouth and released huge flames of fire right at Arbok.

"Arbok, dodge it then use Wrap on Vulpix!"

"Weezing, do another Smog!"

The fire that Vulpix shot out flew over to Arbok, but the purple snake dodged over to the side. Arbok then pounced over to Vulpix's side, not attacking it yet, but not intending to. Arbok's tail quickly hooked around to the other side of Vulpix.

Staryu's water hit straight on Weezing's dark, smokey Smog. The two forces were both trying to push each other back with great difficulty.

"Vulpix, dodge to the side and do another Flame Thrower!" shouted Brock.

"Arbok, don't let it get away from you!" commanded Jessie.

Vulpix tried to jump away but Arbok quickly coiled around it, stopping it. In only a matter of seconds, Vulpix's body was barely visible under Arbok's long tail that was now squeezing the life out of it.

"Alakazam, up and over!" shouted Colby.

Alakazam ran in front of Arbok while it was still using Wrap on Vulpix and placed both of its hands in front of it in a cupped kind of matter, as if he was ready to grab something.

Colby came dashing over to Alakazam and jumped one foot on its two hands that were placed out. Then, Alakazam threw him up higher into the air, making Colby come to height level with Arbok.

As Colby flew into the air and towards Arbok's head, he reached one foot back. Then, right when Arbok's head was close enough, Colby slammed a Round Kick right on its side.

Arbok fell down to the ground, releasing Vulpix. However, Arbok's tail was still overlapped on Vulpix, so when Colby landed back on the ground he tried to pull the fox Pokémon back out.

"Arbok! Get up! Get that twerp!" shouted Jessie, annoyed.

Arbok slowly raised its head up, shook off the pain, then saw Colby. He had already released Vulpix, but was still standing on Arbok's tail. The fox had ran off to be back at Brock's side.

Arbok quickly snapped its tail around Colby while he was still standing on it and coiled around him, again.

"Now, use Poison Bite!" commanded Jessie.

Arbok looked down at Colby, who was still coiled up tightly in its tail. The snake opened its mouth, baring its fangs, and zoomed its mouth down at Colby's head.

Right at the very last second, Colby somehow slipped his hands up and grabbed Arbok's mouth before it was able to bite him, but Arbok kept pushing against Colby's arms as he fought back with its fangs bared only inches from Colby's head.

"Guys!" shouted Colby from under Arbok's breath. "A little help here!"

"Pikachu use—," started Ash, but was cut off by Misty again.

"Ash, even if we did allow you to talk, we can't use Pikachu. Another Thundershock might hurt both Arbok and Colby," said Misty.

Colby overheard this while still holding onto Arbok's pressuring mouth.

"Hey, I can take a hit," said Colby. "Really!"

"Vulpix, help Staryu by using Quick Attack!" said Brock, trying to get at least one of the enemies done.

Staryu and Weezing have been pushing back at each other for awhile now, both giving it their all. Weezing, having put its entire attention into its Smo, didn't see Vulpix dashing over from the side.

Vulpix jumped into the air and slammed its head against the unknowing Weezing. The floating Pokémon was thrown down to the ground, unconscious.

"Weezing! No!" said James.

James quickly returned it back into its Pokéball.

James turned over to Jessie.

"Don't we have something that can stop the twerps? Anything?" he asked.

Jessie, who was already aggravated by the Karate twerp who was so close to losing but just wont give up, turned to James with an evil glare in her eyes.

"Do you want to help, James?!" she asked, but sounded more like a demand.

James gulped at seeing her eyes and shook his head.

"Then move!" she said and pushed him forcefully away.

Colby was still fighting back Arbok, but was losing his strength.

"Anytime now, guys!" he shouted while straining his arms.

"Vulpix, help Colby!" shouted Brock.

"Staryu, you too!" shouted Misty.

Ash bent down and whispered in Pikachu's ear.

"You help him too, Pikachu," said Ash.

Pikachu nodded obediently and ran over to meet the others.

Vulpix opened up its mouth, Staryu pointed its tip, and Pikachu squeezed its eyes shut and closed its fists. Then, fire and water together flew over at Arbok and slammed at its face, but when Pikachu's electricity flew over to Arbok, the current flowed through the snake's body and into Colby's.

Colby shouted in pain as the electricity went into his body from Arbok's.

The three Pokémon ceased their attacks after they knew that it had done damage.

Arbok's head flew to the side as it was slammed against three different attacks. Soon, its body uncoiled and fell down to the ground, its eyes didn't show any response and whirled around in its unconsciousness.

Colby, now free from Arbok, also laid unconscious next to the purple snake Pokémon.

"Oh no!" said Misty when she saw Colby. "Pikachu's electricity was too much for him to handle!"

Alakazam saw Colby and rushed over to him to aid him in some way. When Alakazam reached Colby, suddenly a long cord of some kind flew out of nowhere and smacked Alakazam straight on the head.

Alakazam staggered back, but didn't fall. The cord wrapped itself around the psychic's head until it formed a full, tight ring. Alakazam quickly tried to pull it off, but it wouldn't budge.

"I wouldn't try too hard if I were you," said some voice from the trees.

Everyone looked up to where they thought the voices came from, even Jessie, James, and Meowth.

There, in the trees, were two people. One was male while the other was female, and both wore black shirts and pants with a large red "R" in the middle. Another Team Rocket?

"To infect the world with devastation."

"To bite all peoples within every nation."

"To denounce the goodness of truth and love."

"To extend our wrath to the stars above."

"Cassidy!" said the female and raised her hand.

"Butch!" said the male and raised his hand next to the female's.

"Team Rocket, circling earth all day and night."

"Surrender to us now or you'll surely loose the fight."

"That's right!" said the two in union.


	4. Chapter 4

Hocus Pocus 1.5 Chapter 4

"Another Team Rocket?!" shouted Misty.

Brock looked over at Jessie and James.

"Friends of ours?" he asked with a glare.

Jessie, James, and Meowth looked up in the tree that this different Team Rocket was in.

Jessie quickly made a angry frown when her eyes laid upon the female named "Cassidy".

"Cassidy," said Jessie.

Cassidy looked down at Jessie.

"Jessie," said Cassidy. "Getting beat up by just a couple of twerps, I presume?"

Jessie's face seemed to be turning redder and redder by each word that came out of Cassidy's mouth.

"You shut up, up there! Or I'll —"

"Or you'll what?" asked Cassidy. "Look at you: all of your Pokémon have already been beaten, your 'opponents' still have every one of their Pokémon awake and ready for more, and you still haven't caught a single rare Pokémon yet!"

"I said shut up!" shouted Jessie, now red as a apple.

Jessie quickly turned towards James, now directing her maddened glare at him.

"James, do something!" she commanded.

James, scared of Jessie now with the glare she was giving him, threw his hands up in the air in a means of surrender.

"I can't. I hate to admit it, Jessie, but she's right. We have no Pokémon," said James.

Jessie, still maddened by all of this, raised her hand to prepare for another slap across James' face, but stopped when Cassidy said something.

"Well, while you two are talking this over, me and Biff —"

"Butch!" shouted Butch next to Cassidy, annoyed yet again.

"Me and . . . him," said Cassidy, correcting herself. "Will be kindly taking some of these Pokémon."

Butch, still in the tree with Cassidy, pulled out a large bazooka that seemed to come from nowhere and pointed it right at everyone's Pokémon. Then, he shot out a large net out of the bazooka, aiming at Staryu and Vulpix.

"No!" shouted Brock and Misty.

They ran over to their Pokémon, trying to help and save them, but the velocity of the net was too fast for them.

The net flew over the two Pokémon and quickly tighten up to where they could not escape. Then, the net was sucked right back towards Butch's bazooka, up high in the tree.

"No! Vulpix!"

"Staryu!"

Brock leaped in the air to try to grab hold of the net, but it had already gone too high for him to reach. Misty also tried, but nothing worked.

"Nice one, Clutch," said Cassidy.

"It's Butch! . . . And, thank you," said Butch and aimed at the next Pokémon.

Ash, wanting to help, reach back in his belt to pull out a Poké Ball. However, when he reached back, he was reminded that he didn't have a belt for he was now a Pokémon.

"Hey! Give me back my Staryu!" shouted Misty. "Go —"

Right before Misty had the chance to throw out her Poké Ball, she noticed that it seemed to be pulling away from her hand. Then suddenly, it flew out of her hand and up into the tree that Butch and Cassidy were in.

"What?" said Misty.

Then, Misty felt her bag starting to become strangely lighter. She reached back to try to hold her bag down, but then saw all of her Poké Balls with all of her Pokémon in them also fly out of her bag and into the tree.

Misty turned and looked back up into the tree. There, next to Butch, Cassidy was holding out another weapon. This one was shaped like a large magnet, but was held like a gun.

All of the Poké Balls flew over to the magnet shaped weapon and stuck to it like glue.

"Haha! Don't even try to butter me up, kid! All of your Pokémon are now mine!" said Cassidy, laughing. "Poké Balls are made out of a very special type of metal, which is the only kind of metal that this magnet can attract!"

Brock, who was standing near Misty, suddenly felt his belt feel lighter. He knew that it was filled with all of his other Pokémon, so he tried to hold them down. However, nothing worked, and the Poké Balls just slipped right threw Brock's fingers and flew onto the magnet.

"Hey! Give those back!" shouted Brock!

"Ha! Like we would!" said Butch and aimed for Pikachu.

Butch pulled the trigger and fired another net, this time at Pikachu.

Ash saw it coming. He sprinted over to Pikachu to try to save his best friend, to help it, to somehow stop the net, but Pikachu was just too far away for him to help.

"Pikachu!" called Ash.

The net opened up and fell right over Pikachu.

Ash leaped forward at the net, but ended up falling straight onto the ground as the net was hoisted back up into the tree.

"Pikachu!" shouted Ash again as he watched his best friend being pulled away from him.

"Pikapi!" shouted back Pikachu.

Pikachu reached out one of its paws through one of the holes in the net, trying to reach for Ash. Ash reached up into the air, trying to reach for Pikachu as it was taken away from him.

"Nice shot, Clutch," said Cassidy.

"Once again, it's Butch!" corrected Butch.

"Whatever," said Cassidy, pulling out a random bag and stuffing all of their caught Pokémon into it. "Just get that Alakazam and that last Pikachu, then we can leave."

* * *

"James!" shouted Jessie.

"What?" quivered James, covering his face from any future slaps.

"Do something!" shouted Jessie.

"What?"

"I said do something and do it now!"

James looked through his covering hands and at Jessie.

"Why?"

Jessie took James' small opening and slapped him hard across the face with the back of her hand. James' face spun to his other side.

"We can't just stand here and let the ugly, preppie, know-it-all Cassidy get everything we have been working for! We got to do something!" said Jessie.

James turned his head back around to face Jessie. A large red bump now rested on his cheek were he was hit.

"Are you actually saying what I think you're saying, Jessie?" asked James.

"You want us ta' help the twerps?!" said Meowth, shock filling his face.

Jessie hung her head low, hiding her emotions from the other two next to her.

"Y-yes . . . that is what I'm saying . . ."

"But, why help the twerps? Wouldn't that just get us in more trouble?" asked James.

Jessie swung her head back up to face James. The movement frightened James for a second that he jumped back a bit.

"I would rather help those twerps than see that Cassidy run off with our Pikachu! We have worked too hard to get what they have just got in only seconds," said Jessie. "I'm not letting her steal from me again!"

Meowth sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

"Okay . . . so we'll help the twerps, but how we gonna do that?" asked Meowth.

Jessie thought about it. How were they supposed to help when all of their own Pokémon have already been beaten?

Jessie looked up into the tree. There, her nemesis, Cassidy, was smiling. Her oh-so-perfect smile just made Jessie even madder every time she thought about it. Jessie just wanted to run up that tree and tare off those pretty lips of hers . . .

"Wait . . ." said Jessie.

"What?" asked James.

Jessie looked up and down that tree, checking every branch, every leaf, every piece of bark, everything.

* * *

Butch aimed his bazooka straight at Ash. Just as soon as the Pikachu with the hat was in the scope, Butch pulled the trigger and shot out the next net.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion for Ash. He could see the net coming, he knew that it was heading straight for him, he could even feel the wind blowing away to make room for the net, but he didn't move.

For some reason, Ash couldn't move. He was stuck there, shock stricken. His mouth was left open from when he shouted Pikachu's name, and he couldn't close it.

The net was right in front of him now. Ash still didn't move or even flinch. He could hear Misty's and Brock's voices calling him . . . saying . . . something, but they seemed far away from him.

The net was just about to enclose around Ash, then . . .

SSSSSssshhhhh...

Ash was pushed aside, away from the net. He fell over to his side, but quickly looked over to see who had saved him.

It was Colby. Somehow, the teen had gotten back up from being electrocuted and pushed Ash away from being caught in the net! However, in doing so, the net had caught Colby instead!

The net engulfed Colby, who was laying down, probably from still being weak from the thundershock, and the net was now taking him back to the Team Rocket.

"Colby!" shouted Misty. "Hey, he's not a Pokémon! Give him back!"

Butch pulled in the net with Colby still inside it. He gave Colby a look, shrugged, then placed him in the bag with all the other caught Pokémon.

"He might be useful for Giovanni," said Butch.

"How?" shouted Brock. "Like what Misty said, he's not a Pokémon!"

"Maybe not," said Cassidy. "But we saw what he did with those fools Pokémon. We could kidnap him and make him work for us."

She turned to Butch.

"A great idea, don't you think, Dutch?"

Butch spun his head around to face Cassidy, filled with annoyance yet again.

"It's Butch! How many times do I have to remind you?!"

Cassidy rolled her eyes.

"Sorry . . . just hurry up and get the last two."

"Can't," said Butch.

Cassidy turned her full attention to Butch.

"And why can't you?" she asked.

"Because that was our last net. I don't have any more to shoot," said Butch calmly.

"Then why don't you just use one of the nets we just used. All of the Pokémon are already in the bag, right?"

"They don't work that way! Once you reopen the nets, they can't close anymore!" said Butch.

Cassidy turned away from Butch and stuck her chin up in the air, annoyed.

"Fine, then we'll just do it the old fashioned way," she said.

Cassidy tossed her magnet into the bag filled with Pokémon and jumped down from the tree.

Now on the ground, Cassidy reached down to her belt and pulled out a Poké Ball.

"Go, Raticate!" she shouted.

She threw out the Poké Ball towards the ground. The ball flew through the air and hit the ground hard, opening it, and releasing a white light that turned into a large Raticate.

"Raticate!" said the Raticate.

"Raticate," said Cassidy. "Use Bite on that Pikachu!"

Ash saw the Raticate turn its attention towards him. From there, the large rat pounced right at him.

"Ash!" shouted Misty. "Run!"

And he did just that. Ash spun around and dashed away from the pouncing Raticate.

The large rat landed on the ground where Ash was once at, but then chased after Ash in full sprint.

Ash was still not used to his new body. He tried to run on his two feet, but ended up tripping over himself and fell head-first onto the ground. The Raticate saw its chance and pounced straight at Ash, baring its teeth and getting ready to bite down.

Ash quickly rolled over his back and over to his side.

The Raticate landed straight on its teeth onto the ground, inches besides Ash. It would've landed on its face, but because its teeth were barring out so much, it was almost like it bit into the ground.

Which is what it did. Its teeth were now stuck into the ground because it did indeed bite into the ground.

Ash, who was still on his side, saw this as a chance. Without thinking, Ash swung over his small foot and dug it deep into the Raticate's side.

The Raticate made a whine of pain, but still couldn't get its teeth out of the ground. Ash got up to his feet and landed a quick punch on top of the Raticate's back. Raticate made another whine and continued to pull out.

"Raticate!" shouted Cassidy. "Use Super Fang to get the ground out of your teeth!"

The Raticate's teeth started to glow, then it bit down harder into the earth, breaking the dirt its teeth were stuck on.

"Uh, oh," mumbled Ash.

Ash saw it coming, so he quickly turned around and ran to try to get some space between him and Raticate.

The Raticate was now free and pulled its head out of the ground.

Butch jumped down from the tree while holding the bag.

"Need some help?" he asked Cassidy as he walked up to her.

"Just get that Alakazam while I try to get this Pikachu," said Cassidy. "Raticate, Quick Attack!"

While Raticate was about to do its move, Butch pulled out his won Poké Ball and threw it out.

"Go, Primeape!"

The ball opened up as soon as it hit the ground and released a Primeape.

"Primeape!" said the Primeape.

"Primeape, High Kick on that Alakazam!" commanded Butch.

"Wait," said Brock, thinking. "Alakazam is a psychic type Pokémon. Why would he use a fighting type?"

Brock thought for a few seconds, then ran over to Alakazam.

"Alakazam," said Brock. "Push Primeape away with Psychic!"

Alakazam's eye started to glow and Primeape sta—

"Alaka!"

The band around Alakazam's head was shooting out electricity all around Alakazam's head, stopping it from using it's attack.

The Primeape rushed in towards Alakazam, using the distraction to its advantage, and swung up its High Kick across Alakazam's chin. Alakazam stubbled backward, but quickly regained its balance.

"Wha—?" said Brock.

Butch saw Brock's face and started laughing.

"I don't think so," said Butch. "That band around Alakazam's head was made just for psychic type Pokémon. Whatever psychic move Alakazam does will just end up it hurting itself."

Brock clenched his teeth in frustration. What other moves can this Alakazam know that are not psychic? Most Alakazams know only psychic moves.

Ash leaped over to the side as Raticate did another Quick Attack.

"Again, Raticate!" commanded Cassidy. "The Pikachu is getting tired!"

Raticate charged towards Ash again with amazing speed. Ash waited for the last second, then jumped out of the way, avoiding the attack.

"Raticate," said Cassidy. "Use Scary Face!"

The Raticate turned and faced Ash, but this time didn't charge at him. Instead, Raticate made one of the most scariest faces Ash had ever seen, and it was looking straight at him.

Fear swelled up inside Ash. His body couldn't move due to being paralyzed by fear.

"Now Raticate!" said Cassidy. "Use Hyper Fang!"

The Raticate's face was back to normal and it charged again towards Ash.

Ash tried to move . . . He wanted to move, but his body was even slower than before. That image of Raticate's face was burned into his mind that his body reacted slower to his mind's commands.

"Dodge it!" shouted Misty, trying to be of some help.

The Raticate still running towards Ash, baring its teeth and getting ready. It was already right in front of Ash, and if one second passed by it would be too late.

Ash finally got his body to move, but it was already too late. The Raticate (once it was close enough) leaped forward at Ash with its teeth at ready. Ash did move away, but the Raticate's teeth caught hold of Ash's arm right before he managed to escape.

The body weight of Raticate along with the momentum it brought pulled Ash down to his back onto the ground. The Raticate still had Ash's arm between it's teeth and would refused to let it go.

Then, the pain came.

The Raticate bite down hard with its teeth, using its Hyper Fang move on Ash's arm. Ash yelled in pain, but didn't give up. He tried to pull his arm out, he tried to slip away, he tried to squirm . . . but his arm stayed.

"Primeape, use Focus Punch!" commanded Butch.

The Primeape nodded and dashed towards Alakazam, charging up it's hand and making it glow.

The Alakazam stood there, not moving, and not avoiding the powerful oncoming punch.

"Alakazam!" shouted Brock. "Dodge it!"

But, the Alakazam didn't move. It wouldn't listen to Brock.

The Primeape was now inches away from Alakazam and swung it's glowing fist over to the psychic's head.

But suddenly, right as Primeape's fist was zooming over to Alakazam's head, the psychic raised up its own arm in a swift motion and simply pushed the fist away, making Primeape hit nothing but air.

The Primeape lost some of its balance, expecting to actually hit the Alakazam, but quickly regained it.

"What?!" said Butch, shocked. "Primeape, Close Combat, now!"

The Primeape started to throw all kinds of offensive punches, kicks, chops, and everything else right at Alakazam. But somehow, the Alakazam just swiftly blocked every single attack with a simple move of the arm or paw or leg.

Then, right when the Primeape threw another punch at Alakazam's chest, the Alakazam raised its arm underneath Primeape's fist, pushing the punch over Alakazam's head. From there (and very quickly) the Alakazam slammed a short punch right into Primeape's stomach. The Primeape had to stop its own attack due to the blow, but Alakazam pressed forward.

After doing the short punch, the Alakazam swung over it's elbow across Primeape's cheek. Then, while keeping the elbow dug into Primeape's cheek, the Alakazam swung a chop over Primeape's face using the hand that was connected to the elbow that was still on Primeape's cheek. After that, Alakazam pulled it elbow away and swung over a side palm right at the side of Primeape's head, then, from there, swung around its back foot all the way around itself and slammed the heel right on Primeape's nose. A spinning back kick.

The Primeape flew backwards after the powerful kick was done. It flew back all the way into a tree, which it hit with a loud THUD.

Alakazam brought its right foot in front of it and got both of its hands up in guard.

"Wh-wh-what w-w-was that?!" said Butch, shocked from all of this. "D-did that Alakazam just do fighting moves?!"

Brock was just as shocked as Butch was. He looked at Alakazam's stance, then noticed that the stance seemed very familiar.

Then, he remembered.

"That's," said Brock. "That's the same stance Colby was in when he fought!"

It indeed was. Down to the very last detail, Alakazam was in the exact same fighting stance as its trainer was.

Primeape, who hit a tree very hard, slid off the tree, knocked out.

Butch got out his Poké Ball and returned Primeape to its ball.

Then, Brock heard someone yell in pain. He turned and saw Ash on his back with Raticate bitting his arm.

Brock turned back to Alakazam.

"Alakazam, help Ash!"

Alakazam turned around to look at Ash, then nodded at Brock.

Ash moaned in pain again. The Raticate was biting even harder now and refused to let go.

"Use Quick Attack!" commanded Misty. "Use Thundershock, use Tail Whip, use . . . something!"

Ash groaned. _She knows that I don't know any of those moves, so why does she keep telling me that?! _Thought Ash.

Ash knew he had to do something, otherwise this Raticate would bite off his arm!

Without thinking, Ash lifted his head up to Raticate's and bite his own Pikachu teeth into Raticate's nose, trying to do some sort of damage.

Raticate quickly released Ash's arm and wailed with pain from Ash's bite. The rat raised its head high in the air, but Ash kept his alien fangs into the Raticate's nose.

The Raticate brought its head back down. Then, it tried to swing Ash off of it by swinging its head around.

Ash was jerked to the left, to the right, up, down , left again, and back up. Eventually, Ash's hold couldn't keep, and he was flung right off.

"Raticate!" commanded Cassidy. "Quick Attack and finish it off!"

Raticate shook off the pain from Ash's bite, then dashed forward in Ash's direction.

Then, Alakazam, seeming to come out of nowhere at the time, rushed in and slammed its head straight into Raticate's side while it was doing a Quick Attack at Ash.

Raticate flipped over to its side, having its air knocked right out. Alakazam brought up a Front Kick underneath the Raticate, kicking it into the air. From there, Alakazam jumped up into the air and slammed a Flying Round Kick right onto Raticate, sending it flying.

Raticate flew all the way over to Cassidy, slamming into her. The momentum from the kick on Raticate and it slamming into Cassidy flung the Rocket member back into another tree.

"Oof," was all Cassidy could say when Raticate got her and she got the tree.

"Cassidy!' said Butch when he saw what happened.

His face turned into anger and he turned his attention to Alakazam. He reached back to grab another Poké Ball, so he could get that darn Kong-Fu Pokémon back.

But, as he reached back, a large stick swung over onto Butch's back, pushing him down onto his stomach.

"Ha! Now who's getting beat up?" said Jessie, lifting up her stick high in the air like a trophy.

"Jessie?" said Misty, bewildered.

Jessie, hearing Misty's shock, turned to her and pointed her stick at her.

"Hey! Don't think I'm going soft on you!" said Jessie. "As soon as these two are gone, we're enemies again."

"Wait," said Brock. "Does that mean that you're helping us now?"

"Don't get cocky!" warned Jessie.

She turned her head over to face James, who was behind her.

"Quick! Get Cassidy's and Cutch's—"

"Butch," corrected Butch, but couldn't say it very loudly due to his blow on the back.

"Quiet, you!" said Jessie, stomping her foot on his back.

Butch fall flat on the ground with a soft "Oof" when Jessie did so.

Cassidy, still in front of her tree, staggered back up and pushed her Raticate away to the side.

"Jessie!" she shouted. "You backstabbing thief! Giovanni will kill you if he finds out what you've done with your fellow members!"

"'Fellow members'?!" said Jessie. "You are no 'fellow member' to me, you stupid witch!"

"Jessie," warned James, overhearing their conversation. "She's right. If the boss finds out that we stopped them from getting Pokémon, he'll kick us out of Team Rocket for sure!"

Cassidy grinned.

"So then maybe I should hurry up and get going," she said.

Cassidy reached over to her belt and pulled out two Poké Balls. The first one, she used to return the Raticate, the second one she threw out.

"Go, Houndour! Use Flame Thrower!" called Cassidy.

The ball hit the ground and released the Houndour. The Houndour immediately opened its mouth and blew out a large line of fire straight towards Jessie.

Jessie saw it coming and tried to move out of the way, but the flames engulfed her.

She stood at the same position she was in before she was burned, but now she was covered in black ash. Her face shown a smile of pain.

"O-Ow," was all Jessie said.

Butch, now having Jessie's foot off of his back, got back up to his feet and staggered over to Cassidy.

"Lets go. Get the Pokémon," said Cassidy. "Houndour, return!"

Cassidy held out her Poké Ball and returned Houndour to it. Butch grabbed the bag filled with all of the stolen Pokémon and slung it over his back.

"No!" called Misty. "Give our Pokémon back!"

She ran over to Cassidy and Butch in an attempt to get the bag, but as soon as she reached them, they jumped back up into the tree that they were in before.

"Sorry, kid," said Butch. "But we'll see you later!"

Then, they turned around and leaped onto the next tree, then the next, and the next, and the next, etcetera.

Ash ran up to the tree that the two jumped out of.

They took it. They took all of them . . .

"Pikachu!" called out Ash, hopping to hear his best friend call back.

But as he watched the two dots jump out of sight, he heard no answer.


	5. Chapter 5

Hocus Pocus 1.5 chapter 5

Ash gazed upon the two that were leaping out of sight by each second.

_I have to stop them_! Thought Ash. _They have Pikachu along with Colby and Brock's and Misty's Pokémon! I cannot let them get away!_

Ash turned away from the tree he faced and aimed his body towards where Cassidy and Butch jumped away to.

Ash wanted to sprint off towards them, to try to catch them somehow, and he would have if Misty hadn't grabbed hold of his Pikachu tail, stopping him from moving.

"No," she said, still holding on. "You are still as hard-headed as ever!"

Ash was about to object, but a very tight and strong squeeze giving by Misty on his tail reminded him to keep quiet.

So, instead of saying something, he kept trying to wiggle out of Misty's grasp, but Misty held on to Ash's tail, refusing to let go.

"No," repeated Misty. "You need to think this through! You don't know what will happen if you just run out there like you always do!"

Now Brock stepped in.

"She's right," he said. "Lets try to make a plan first before we do something stupid."

Ash didn't want to stop. He didn't want to just give this other Team Rocket a chance to get away with his Pikachu.

"Bu—." More pain from Misty and into Ash's tail. "Eh. . . pikachu! Pika!"

"I'm sorry," said Brock. "But we do need to think this through. We don't even know where they're headed."

"Maybe not," said Jessie.

Now Ash stopped trying to pull away from Misty. He turned towards the Team Rocket that he knew and fought against so well. He had almost forgotten that they were still here.

Even Brock was a little shocked and turned towards them.

"How is that?" asked Brock.

Jessie pulled her head up in a very boastful and prideful manner.

"We know where they're headed," said Jessie.

Ash looked at her in confusion. He wanted to ask a question, but Misty went ahead and asked the question he was thinking about.

"Why are you helping us now?" asked Misty. "Aren't they apart of your team too?"

"Yeah," started James. "But after Jessie here got mad at Cassidy and tried to fight her off, that could get us off the team!"

Jessie turned around and faced James.

"Are you saying that this is my fault?!" she asked with a reddened face.

James cowered down to his knees, scarred that he might get hurt again.

"No, no! Not at all!" he pleaded. "I'm just telling the twerps what happened!"

Jessie looked him over, as if checking something. . . Then turned around and dismissed it.

James fell down to his bottom with a sigh of relief.

Meowth stepped up and decided to finish the explanation.

"You see, if those two get to tell te boss tat we backstabbed anoter member, than we're toast!" said the talking Pokémon.

Brock hesitated for a moment and scratched his chin, considering the options.

"So, you need our help just as much as we need your's, right?" said Brock.

Team Rocket looked at one another, then turned towards Brock and nodded with a sigh.

Finally, Mist let go of Ash's tail and turned towards Team Rocket. Ash didn't run away for his options were plain now.

"Okay, then," said Misty. "If you three claim to know where they're going, then where are they going?"

Jessie, from looking all down and blue and regretful, suddenly perked up with her finger in the air.

"Well, to the Drop-Off, silly," she said.

"The Drop-Off? What's that?" asked Brock.

Jessie let her finger go back down to her side.

"It's where we take all of the Pokémon we've caught—"

"You mean, 'stolen'?" said Misty.

Jessie made an annoyed face, but ignored the comment.

"There, they gather up all the. . .caught Pokémon and take them over to our HQ," explained Jessie.

"Wait," said Brock. "If that's it, then how will those other guys tell on you?"

Now, James, still sitting down on the ground, answered.

"At every Drop-Off they have a telecommunications center so that all Team Rocket personal can document all of their findings to HQ," he explained.

"And tat's where we can't let them get to," finished Meowth.

"So, let me get this straight," said Misty. "You need our help to try to stop some people that you don't like from telling their boss on you, right?"

They all nodded.

"And while we're doing that, we're also trying to stop them from taking our Pokémon (along with Colby) to the Drop-Off, correct?"

Again, they all nodded.

"So," continued Misty. "How can we trust that you three aren't trying to trick us?"

Now, all three of them paused. They didn't know what to say to that.

"Well. . .eh. . ."

"There's no time for that right now, Misty," said Brock, cutting in. "We have to go now before they get too far."

"Eh. . .y-yeah!" said James, using the cover-up. "Our hot-air balloon is not too far, lets go!"

Ash, listening to all of this, still didn't like it. This was Team Rocket after all, and for all he knew they could be walking straight into a trap like Misty said. But, Brock was right about the timing. If they were going to do something, they better do it now while there's still time.

Brock, Misty, James, Jessie, and Meowth started running through the woods and towards where Team Rocket's balloon was supposed to be. Ash was just about to follow them until he saw the Alakazam.

The psychic Pokémon must've been listening to the whole conversation too and just kept quiet. Even Ash had forgotten that it was still there.

Team Rocket and the others were away from right now, so Ash thought it would be okay.

"Hey," said Ash. "Are you going to come with us?"

The Alakazam stood there for awhile, then looked over to where Butch and Cassidy went off to.

Ash followed his gaze, then remembered that Colby was taken too.

"You're worried about him already, aren't you?" asked Ash.

Alakazam didn't say anything. Instead, he turned and walked over to Ash, then placed both of his hands on him.

Suddenly, Ash could see lights coming out of both Alakazam and himself.

Then, there was a bright flash. . . and they were right in front of Team Rocket's hot-air balloon.

Misty, Brock, James, Jessie, and Meowth all jumped up with shock as the two appeared right in front of them.

"A—," mumbled Misty, still a little shocked. "Why did you do that? You two scared me half to death!"

Even if he was allowed to say something, Ash didn't know what to say. Instead, he just smiled and scratched the back of his head.

Misty made a small groan, then sighed.

"Alright, just hurry up and get on," she said.

"Wait a minuet," said James.

Everyone turned towards him.

"What, James?" asked Jessie. "Can you not see that we're in a hurry?"

"Well, I was just thinking, Jessie," said James. "If that Alakazam can use Teleport, then why can't we just teleport over to the Drop-Off?"

Jessie raised up her hand, ready to slap James once again across his face. James crouched down low while covering his head in an attempt to somehow dodge the attack. However, when the stinging slap didn't come, James looked up at his partner.

"You know, James. . . You might have a point there," said Jessie.

James sighed in relief of not being hit.

Jessie turned towards the Alakazam.

"Can you teleport us to the Drop-Off?" she asked it.

Alakazam looked at her confusingly, as if it couldn't believe what she was asking.

"Now what's that face supposed to mean?!" demanded Jessie.

"It's not the easy," stepped in Brock. "In order for any Psychic Pokémon to teleport anywhere, they have to already have been there at least once. Alakazam can't just go anywhere he wants whenever."

Alakazam nodded its head in agreement.

Already annoyed again, Jessie took out her small anger on James, who had his defense completely gone. James whined from being slapped again, a large red spot appearing on his cheek.

"Alright, then hurry up! We haven't got all day!" complained Jessie while getting in the hot-air balloon.

* * *

Colby was still unconscious in the bag until something hit his head really hard. He immediately woke up (just as if he was sleeping) and looked around, remembering what had happened before.

Only a little bit of light shown through the bag to show Colby what was around him. At his side was Misty's Staryu, still out of its Poké Ball. The large ruby shaped stone that was on it was very close to Colby's head, which could explain the hard thing that hit him and woke him up.

Below him were Misty's and Brock's Poké Balls. They were all clustered beneath him and sitting on them wasn't very comfortable.

In front of Colby, crunched up beside him inside the bag, were two Pokémon, Pikachu and Vulpix.

"Pikachu?" said Colby when he saw the Pokémon.

The electric mouse looked up at Colby with its worried little eyes, as if it was using them to talk instead of talking on its own.

Colby could feel the bag around him lurch up and fall back down. Were they moving?

"Pikachu," whispered Colby.

Again, Pikachu didn't say anything.

"I know you must be a little scared," whispered Colby. "And know that I am too, but that doesn't mean that we should give up."

Now Vulpix was looking up at Colby along with Pikachu, waiting for him to say something else.

Colby looked around him, as if trying to see through the bag and at his captors. Who are these people? He looked back down at Pikachu.

"We're going to find a way out of here, trust me," comforted Colby.

"Pika pikachu pikapi?" asked Pikachu.

Colby had no idea what it said.

"Eh. . .um. . .well, these guys have to rest eventually from all of this jumping. When they stop, we'll make our move. Does that sound like a plan?"

Pikachu looked over at Vulpix, who was crunched up close to Pikachu as it was to Colby. Vulpix gave Pikachu a small lick on the head and nodded its own head. Pikachu laughed a little bit, but tried to keep quiet, then nodded as well.

Colby nodded back to each of them.

* * *

"Hey! Don't touch tat!" shouted Meowth.

Ash saw so many buttons on Team Rocket's balloon that he almost couldn't resist to which was does what, but he was mostly looking for one that would make them go faster to the Drop-Off.

Ash grimaced at Meowth, forcing himself not to talk, and pulled his paws away from all of the buttons around him.

"Don't worry about him," said Misty, referring to Ash. "Just pull on his tail real hard and he'll stop."

Ash quickly turned around to face Misty, ready to shout out at her to stop, but Meowth grabbed his Pikachu tail and yanked it up high.

"How's tat?" asked Meowth, smiling.

Misty smiled back evilly.

"That's good," she said.

Ash whined in pain, but kept in his scream.

"I like tis one, it doesn't fight back!" said Meowth.

Now Ash tried to squirm away from Meowth's grasp. His sudden reaction surprised Meowth and it did let go of Ash, letting Ash free.

Ash got back to his feet and turned around towards Meowth, glaring at it.

"Pi ka!" said Ash, trying to sound threatening with this new language.

Meowth looked at him confusingly.

"What?" it asked.

Ash ignored Meowth and just turned around with his back to it.

"Hey! Stop fighting, you two!" commanded Jessie. "We fight with these twerps all of the time, so for right now just take a break from it!"

"Well I wouldn't blame them," said Brock. "This entire basket is filled with old food, broken metal, and broken glass. It's a no-wonder why he—I mean, it— wants off so badly."

Jessie's face turned pink yet again.

"Well I'm so sorry! It's not our fault that you twerps kept blasting us off along with whatever we were using!" shouted Jessie.

"Well," cut in Misty, also getting angry. "Maybe if you three didn't keep trying to steal our Pokémon, then you wouldn't have been blasted off so many times!"

Jessie's face was now red. She walked over to Misty and jabbed a finger at her.

"You listen here, little missy!" she shouted. "This is MY balloon and you will treat me with respect!"

"Respect?" laughed Misty, pushing away the finger. "Let me tell you 'miss'! Since when did any of YOU treat US with respect? I don't care if this is your balloon or not, I'll 'treat' you the exact same way to treat us!"

Now Jessie's face was about as red as a tomato.

"Why you little—"

"Jessie," cautioned James while controlling the balloon. "Remember, we need them just as much as they need us. Lets not try to get too angry."

Jessie's face looked as if it was about to pop at any second. She glared at Misty for a long while, getting madder and madder by each second. Then, in an attempt to rid of her anger, she turned around and slapped James across the face.

"OW!" screamed James. "What was that for?"

After James was slapped, he accidently let go of the controls for the balloon and even pushed it to the side a bit.

The balloon jerked over to the side, staggering everyone onboard. Ash had to grab hold of some of the buttons that he had been looking at, trying to use them to balance himself out from the sudden movement, but without knowing it he also accidently pressed one of the buttons.

Out from the bottom of the basket that everyone stood on popped out a robotic arm. The arm lashed downward, towards the ground, and grabbed hold of a random tree. Since the arm was connected to a moving hot air balloon, the tree that the arm held onto made the balloon lurch forward again, but this time towards the ground.

Everyone (including Ash and Alakazam) lost their balance as the basket started to tilt. Ash fell down on his bottom just as the basket turned completely towards it side. He tried to reach back and grab hold of anything around him, but there was nothing but smooth floor.

Ash slid down the basket all while trying desperately to find something to hold onto to stop his falling. He slid down to the side of the basket, which was tilted completely downward, straight down towards the ground.

His velocity would've made him fall down and off of the basket, but just as he fell, he quickly grabbed hold of the very edge of the basket, clinging for his life.

"Ah!"

Ash turned his head just in time to see Misty slide off and fall down towards the ground.

"Misty!"

Ash lunged out with his other paw towards Misty's hand. Misty reach out too as she fell, but the timing was too late and their hands never met contact.

So, knowing that she couldn't grab Ash's paw, she instead reached out and grabbed his dangling, Pikachu tail. She grabbed it and caught hold. Ash winced in pain, but tried to concentrate more on his grip.

Brock slid down and fell off without warning or any real struggle. James kept wiggling around as he slid and fell off easily while Jessie tried to use Meowth as something to hold to keep her from falling, but they both ending up going down.

Ash looked down. He could see Brock, James, Jessie, and Meowth fall down towards the forest below. Would they be okay?

Suddenly, Ash felt one of his fingers fall loose. His grip was giving!

Misty still held onto Ash's tail and her weight made it even more harder for Ash to hold on. . .

Another finger let loose. . .


	6. Chapter 6

Hocus Pocus 1.5 chapter 6

"Hang on, Misty!" shouted Ash. It would be okay to talk now since just about everyone has fallen off.

Ash was trying his best to hold on to the edge of the hot-air balloon basket, but it was hard for him to hold on when his new paws are short and stubby.

"I am hanging, Ash!" shouted back Misty, who in fact was still holding onto Ash's Pikachu tail. "Just try to pull yourself back up into the basket!"

"Easy for you to say!" said Ash, straining himself to talk while hanging. "But you're not the one with Pikachu paws!"

"Oh, just shut up and try!" shouted Misty.

Ash groaned and tried to reach up with his other paw and grab the basket. However, right as he lifted his free paw, the paw that was hanging on slipped off.

Ash scrambled in mid-air and quickly caught hold again to the basket, but this time with his other paw.

"Misty!" shouted Ash. "I don't know how much longer I can hold!"

"Just hang on!" shouted back Misty.

Then, she had an idea.

"Ash! Let me climb over you and get into the basket!" said Misty

"What? And leave me dangling here?!" shouted Ash.

"No, you idiot!" shouted Misty. "If I wasn't hanging here for my life, I would've punched you so hard by now! I meant that after I'm in the basket, I'll pull you up too!"

Ash shouted at Misty to hurry up and do so. Misty tried to climb over Ash, but it was hard for her to get a firm grip on his furry body and it was hard for Ash to hold on when someone that weighed more than twice of his new body weight was climbing and pulling down on him.

Misty reached up to the top of Ash's tail, grabbed, and pulled herself up. Ash had to bite his own lip just to try to stop the pain that went through his body when she did that. Misty reached up again and grabbed Ash's stomach, almost squeezing the air out of him. However, when Misty brought up her other hand, the grip she had on Ash's stomach let loose and gave on her.

Ash quickly reached down with his free paw and grabbed Misty's hand before she fell. But, Ash's other paw that still hung onto the very edge of the basket gave away too after having Misty's weight forced back upon it.

They both fell like rocks from an mudslide. Straight down towards the ground at a breakneck speed.

Ash and Misty both screamed as they fell to their deaths.

As Ash fell, his life seemed to flash before his eyes.

The day he was born.

The day he said his first word.

The day he saw a Pokémon for the first time.

The day he rode his first bike.

The day he lost his first bike.

The day he got his first Pokémon toy.

The day he got ready to start his journey as a Pokémon trainer.

But, the most important memory that flashed through Ash's mind. . . was the day that he had first met Pikachu.

Pikachu.

_Will I ever be able to see it again? _Thought Ash. _Will it be experimented on for the rest of its life because I wasn't able to save it?_ _Will I ever be able to hear it call me?_

* * *

Pikachu shifted in the bag. A strange feeling was washing over it for some reason. Colby saw its uneasiness and wanted to help.

"What's wrong, Pikachu?" he whispered.

Pikachu didn't look up at Colby nor any of the other Pokémon around it, but instead Pikachu looked up, as if it was able to look outside of the bag.

And it muttered one word.

"Pikapi."

Colby didn't know what that meant, but that expression on its face showed that it was missing something. . .or someone.

Colby leaned his hand over and softly petted the small, electric mouse, trying his best to comfort it.

"Don't worry, little guy," whispered Colby. "In the end, it'll all be all right. You just have to have some hope."

Now, Pikachu turned its head over to face Colby, then faced away and looked up in the distance again.

"Pikap—"

Suddenly, cutting off what Pikachu was about to say, there was a small THUD, and then the feeling of weightlessness overcame everyone. They were falling!

Colby couldn't tell if he was falling backwards, forwards, sideways, or anything, but it was a for-sure feeling that they were falling straight towards the ground. The Butterfrees in his stomach told him so.

But the real question was what to do. It was hard to think at all while falling. Colby's mind whirled so much from trying to think of anything while everything was going on that he couldn't even think straight. All of his thoughts were just his fears of what might happen to them.

Then, the ground finally hit them. . .all of them. . .but it felt closer than any of them had thought. Of course, it still hurt a bit from the fall, but no one was injured or seriously harmed in any way.

"You idiot! How could you drop the bag?!" shouted a feminine voice.

"Well, I'm so sorry! You try carrying a full bag of Pokémon along with a kid while jumping over trees!" shouted back a more masculine voice. "Why are we even jumping over these trees anyway? It's both stupid and tiring!"

Pikachu couldn't see through the thick bag, but it could definitely tell who's voices those were.

"Well, if I'm not mistaken, it was in-fact your idea, Dutch!" argued back Cassidy.

"For the last time! My name is Butch!" shouted Bunch. . .Clutch. . .not wait. . .Bob. . .no. . .Butch! That time was right.

Colby seized this opportunity and crawled out of bag, pulling Pikachu, Vulpix, and Staryu out with him.

"Why don't you just shut up for once and get these Pokémon to the Drop-Off already?!" argued Cassidy, still not yet noticing the escaping Pokémon.

"Okay then," said Butch, jabbing a finger at his partner. "Why don't you carry the bag filled with Poké Balls, three grown Pokémon, along with a teenaged twerp!"

"What?" said Cassidy, turning away with her hand on her chest. "Shouldn't the real men have to do that? I mean, lifting heavy objects isn't a lady's work."

Once all of the Pokémon were out of the bag, Colby picked up the bag (which was still filled with the Poké Balls) and hoisted it over his shoulder.

"'Lady's work'?!" shouted out Butch, turning red from anger. "I don't see one 'lady' out here. All I see is some little 'girl' that refuses to pick up a bag!"

"Well, excuse me! That darn bag is part of your—"

Cassidy pointed over to where the bag used to be, expecting it to still be there, but paused in her sentence as she and Butch noticed that the twerp and the three Pokémon had gotten out and were trying to steal their own bag.

"Hey! Stop right there!" shouted Cassidy.

"Like I would," said Colby, teasingly, and dashed off.

Pikachu and Vulpix dashed right behind Colby while Staryu hopped along behind them.

* * *

All of Ash's senses came back to him. He was still falling, but his memory flashes went away.

_No!_ He thought. _It can't end like this! I just wont let it!_

Ash looked around him, trying to find anything to help him and Misty.

Ash looked back up at the turned basket. Wasn't there something, anything to help them?

Just then, Alakazam leaped out of the basket and dived downward towards Ash and Misty. _Alakazam! I forgot all about it! _

The Psychic reached out and grabbed Ash's paw, then reached out with it's other hand to grab Misty's, and pulled them back close together in the air.

And that's when it hit Ash.

"That's it!" shouted Ash as he free fell. "Alakazam is a psychic! Alakazam, use Teleport!"

The Pokémon was already ahead of Ash. By the time Ash was done saying his sentence, Alakazam started to glow brightly. Soon enough, Misty began to glow next to it and Ash's vision was filled with nothing but white light.

But Ash could tell that they hadn't teleported yet. Before, Alakazam teleported him a short distance over to Team Rocket's hot-air balloon and when it did, Ash saw a bright flash and a funny sensation came over him. Right now, neither of them have happened yet, only bright light.

"Could it be charging?" thought aloud, Ash.

Ash suddenly thought why he had forgotten about Alakazam in the first place. What had it been doing the whole time on the balloon?

Then, there was the bright flash that shown even through the white light that covered Ash's vision. And just as quick as when the flash turned completely on, it turned off. . .and Ash could see the ground. This time, the ground was much closer.

However, it was still very high for Ash and Misty.

And their decent continued.

"Wait, we're still falling!" shouted Misty, terrified.

Thanks to the laws of gravity, all three of them fell at the same time. Luckily, Misty landed on some branches of some of the trees around them while Alakazam caught hold of one branch and swung down to the ground, safely, on it's two feet.

Ash, however, fell straight downward, completely missing the trees around him. He quickly fell to the ground. . .but with something cushioning his fall right as he touched-downed.

"Oof!"

Ash was completely safe, but whatever broke his fall sounded in pain. Ash looked down on whatever saved him.

It was a long thing, covered in some kind of dark cloths, and ended at a black point at the top. Before the point at the top, there was some long, orange fur coming out of it, but no other fur existed on any other spot of the thing.

"Um. . .hello?" said Ash to the thing beneath him.

The branches that Misty fell on quickly gave away, making her fall down to the ground as well with an "Oof!".

Alakazam held on to some cord looking thing in one of its hands. It looked a bit ripped up and ruined, so Alakazam threw it over it shoulder, getting rid of it.

The thing beneath Ash groaned and slowly got up. Ash quickly got off of it, but he mostly just fell off since his body was so small and the thing just stood up beneath him.

"Oh. . .my head. . ."

Misty got up from where she fell, rubbing where she fell on, and looked up at the thing. . .then gasped in shock.

"Lily?!" Misty gasped.

The Poké Witch turned her head around and faced Misty.

"Oh, hello there, Misty!"said Lily, dusting herself off. "Fancy seeing you here."

"But. . .what. . .what are you doing here?" asked Misty, still shocked.

"Well, it's kind of a long story but—"

The Poké Witch stopped and gasped at herself once she saw Ash on the ground where he fell off of her. She immediately picked him up in her arms and held him tight.

"Oh you cute, little Pikachu! It's good to see you again!" Lily said as she cuddled with Ash in her arms. "You're so soft and small and cute and cuddly!"

"Lily, it's me!" said Ash as the witch kept hugging him.

But Lily didn't hear him at all, she just kept loving on him and telling him how cute he was. . .

"Uh. . .Lily. . .that's not. . ." stubbled Misty, trying also to explain to the witch.

"Alaka!" shouted Alakazam.

Lily stopped, but not when Misty said something, when Alakazam said something.

"Oh, hello there! I didn't know Alakazam live around here," Lily said, still holding onto Ash.

"Lily! It's me! Ash! Put me down!" shouted Ash.

Finally, the witch looked down at Ash after hearing him. Her eyes quickly widened.

"Ash?" she gasped. "Oh, wow! It really is you! And you're still a Pikachu!"

"Yes. . .that's what we've been trying to say. . ." sighed Misty.

Lily smiled again at Ash in her arms, then looked around as if expecting someone else.

"Well, I see that you and Misty are here, but where is Brock and your Pikachu?"

"Well," started Misty. "We were together, but we got separated once we were looking for—"

"Pikachu!" shouted Ash, both finishing and interrupting Misty's sentence. "We gotta hurry up and go and find it!"

"Hold on," said Lily. "You lost your Pikachu? The one that helped make the potion before?"

"I didn't loose it! Team Rocket came and stole it from me!" stated back Ash.

Lily frowned.

"No, that isn't a good thing. . .that Rocket Team weren't very nice people as I recall," said the witch.

"No, they're not," said Ash. "Which is why we need to go right now! We need to go find Team Rocket and save Pikachu and the other Pokémon!"

Lily gasped.

"They stole other Pokémon?!" she asked, astounded.

Misty and Ash nodded their heads.

"They stole Ash's Pikachu, my Staryu, Brock's Vulpix, all our Poké Balls with our Pokémon in them, and even kidnaped a friend of ours that we had just met," explained Misty.

Lily raised her hand to cover her mouth as she gasped again.

"That's terrible! They even kidnaped one of your friends?!"

Misty nodded again.

Lily placed Ash back down on the ground, dusted herself off some more, and began to rummage through her bag.

"Then we need to get going right now!" said the witch.

"We know, but we don't know where we are, where Team Rocket is, or where Brock is," said Misty.

"Two of those things are easy, silly," said Lily, still rummaging through her bag. "Now where did I put that—Ah! Here it is!"

Lily pulled out a small bottle filled with some strange orange liquid out of her bag and held it out in front of her.

"This," the witch started, still holding the bottle. "will help you find your friend, Brock."

"How?" asked Ash from below Lily.

Lily looked below herself and down at Ash, so she could see him.

"Well, this is just a small concoction I made a couple weeks ago. . .before we met," said Lily. "This can make any psychic Pokémon or human be able to sense the whereabouts of things or people that they have already came in contact with."

"I get it," said Misty. "If you give that potion to Alakazam here, it will be able to know where Brock is!"

Lily smiled and nodded her head.

"That's right! However, it just needs some psychic energy added to it before it can be drunk," said Lilly.

Ash turned around and faced Alakazam, who was behind him.

"Alakazam, could you find our friend for us?" asked Ash.

Alakazam looked down at Ash. . .but didn't say anything.

"Please," Ash pleaded. "If you find Brock for us, then we can go find Colby and the other Pokémon."

As soon as Alakazam heard the name of its trainer, its whole face changed expressions. It nodded its head strongly towards Ash, already holding out its hand for the potion.

"Alaka!"

"Thank you," said Ash, smiling.

Lily walked over to Alakazam and handed it the potion.

First, she had to tell it to use Psy Beam into the potion so it can activate. When Alakazam did just that, it brought the potion to its lips and chugged it down.

"Woah! Careful there!" warned Lilly. "You don't want to choke on it!"

But Alakazam didn't care. In a matter of seconds, the whole bottle was empty.

There was no POOF! or any fog coming out of the bottle, nothing even seemed to be happening to Alakazam at the moment.

"Did it work?" asked Ash.

"Of course it did, silly," said Lily. "You might not be able to see it actually work, but I'm sure Alakazam can feel the results."

Sure enough, Alakazam closed its eyes and began to glow brightly. Then, there was a bright flash, and it was gone.

"Where did it go?" asked Ash, astonished.

"To go find your friend. Now with the potion in its body, its psychic powers have also been increased tenfold!" explained Lily.

"But I thought that Alakazam has to have already been to a place to be able to teleport back there," said Ash.

"True," admitted Lily. "But because Alakazam can sense exactly where your friend is, it'll be just as good as if it had already been there before!"

Ash couldn't say that he completely understood all of this magic/psychic stuff, but he nodded his head to show that she can stop explaining.

"Alright, so while it's doing that, lets hurry up and look for Team Rocket!" said Ash.

* * *

Colby leaped over to the side with the bag still slung over his shoulder, dodging the long line of flame that erupted from Houndour's mouth. He landed on some soft grass, but that didn't mean that it didn't hurt.

He quickly rolled over to his back, protecting the bag filled with Poké Balls.

"Wait a sec," he thought out loud. "We have a Staryu with us now, and Staryus are water type! Staryu!"

The water Pokémon came over to the teenager's side and stood its position.

"Staryu! Use. . .use. . .use. . .um. . ."

_Darn it. . .I can't remember what attacks Staryus can use! _Thought Colby._ I can't even remember that one move. . .what's it called?_

"Houndour, use flamethrower again!" called out Cassidy.

The hound opened its mouth again and released another long line of flame that headed straight for Colby.

"Staryu! Use. . .um. . .whatever water attack you know!" shouted Colby, desperately.

The Staryu didn't move. Instead, it got hit with the fire attack head-on, pushing it backwards a bit, but not completely hurting it much.

Colby leaned up where he was.

"Staryu, I know I might not be your old trainer, but you need to fight back if you want to see her again!" shouted Colby.

The star Pokémon turned back to give Colby a small glance. . .then did a motion that looked like it was nodding its head. Colby nodded back.

"Now, Staryu! Use. . .uh. . .what was that toy we played with before? . . .Water Gun! That's it! Lets go!"

Finally, Staryu pointed down its top point and shot out a stream of water aimed at Houndour.

"Houndour, dodge it!" commanded Cassidy.

Houndour leaped over to the side, barely missing the water-stream.

Cassidy turned and gave a mean glare to Butch.

"What are you doing standing around?" she jabbed. "Get going and help me out here!"

Butch gave a glare back, but didn't say anything. Instead, he grabbed another one of his Poké Balls and threw it out to the field.

"Go, Cloyster!"

The Poké Ball opened up and released a white light that quickly formed into a fully grown Cloyster.

"Wait. . .those are water types too. . .water conducts electricity!" realized Colby. "Pikachu. . .um. . .what's that other move called?. . .uh. . .Thundershock!"

Pikachu leaped over to Colby's side and sparked to life as it filled its body with electricity. Then, it closed its eyes and released an enormous blast of the electricity that slammed straight onto the Cloyster.

The Cloyster's body glowed brightly as the electricity was poured into it. Some sparks went astray and straight into the air.

* * *

"But, Ash," said Misty. "We still don't even know where Team Rocket is."

Suddenly, a bright, yellow light flashed on the other side of the woods. Everyone turned towards it to see what it was.

It was electricity!

"Pikachu!" shouted Ash.

Already the small Pika-trainer was running towards the electricity on his two feet. . . soon just to be tripped over himself from simply running.

"Ash, you have to remember: you're a Pikachu now and will be for awhile," reminded Lily as she ran up to Ash's side.

"I know that," said Ash, sternly.

Ash quickly got back up to his two feet, but then got down on all fours just as he had seen Pikachu do.

Suddenly. . .Ash realized that this position felt. . .comfortable. . .He leaped into the air and dashed away into the forest, going much faster than he thought he possibly could.

* * *

The Cloyster fainted down to the ground instantly, not showing any resistance to the attack.

Butch grinded his teeth together from anger of losing so quickly, but nonetheless returned his Pokémon to its Poké Ball. From there, he grabbed another one of his Poké Balls and threw it out to the field.

"Go, Hitmontop!"

Again, the Poké Ball opened up and released a white light that (this time) formed into a Hitmontop.

"Hitmon!" said the Hitmontop, standing on its head.

"Houndour, tackle that Staryu and get the bag!" commanded Cassidy.

"Hitmontop, you also use tackle on that Pikachu!" commanded Butch next to his partner.

Both of Team Rocket's Pokémon dashed towards their assigned Pokémon that they had to attack.

Colby quickly got to his feet and called out to the Pokémon that he had with him.

"Staryu, try using Watergun again right as Houndour attacks! Pikachu, dodge Hitmontop's attack with your own Quick Attack and hit it from behind!"

The two did as they were told. Right as Houndour was about to slam its head onto Staryu, Staryu sprayed out a Watergun that not only pushed Houndour away, but also did some major damage to it.

Pikachu leaped over to the side as Hitmontop spun on its head to try to hit it and vanished from view. Then, in less than a second, Pikachu reappeared right behind Hitmontop, bit this time had its head already slammed into Hitmontop's back.

"Now, Vulpix! Use Flamethrower on them both!" shouted Colby.

Vulpix opened its own mouth and shot out its own long line of fire, this one slamming onto Hitmontop, which was pushed so hard back that it slammed into Houndour that was next to it with Vulpix's fire still pushing them back.

The two Pokémon kept going until they were both forced upon a tree. Vulpix stopped its fire as soon as the two hit the tree.

A large cloud of dust quickly covered up Houndour and Hitmontop when they hit the tree, almost cracking it in half and cutting it down with their force.

Butch groaned again and pulled out Hitmontop's Poké Ball to return it. . .but stopped as Cassidy placed a hand in front of him. She did not look back at Butch, but just kept her eyes where the two Pokémon where, covered in the cloud of dust.

"Wait," she told Butch, trying to see through the cloud.

It took awhile for the cloud to clear up. Everyone stood still as they awaited to see if this battle had to continue. Colby started to sweat from nervousness. He couldn't think straight again. One side of his mind told him to run, the other side told him to stay and fight.

Pikachu also stood where it was, panting from the two battles it has had to do in only a few hours. The thought of its trainer still lurked in the back of its head, but Pikachu knew that it couldn't do anything right now.

Finally, the cloud cleared.

Both Houndour and Hitmontop. . .

Were standing and ready to keep fighting.

"Alright!" shouted out Cassidy. "We're still going!"

Colby looked down at the three Pokémon next to him. They all look enormously tired from all of the fighting they've done. Colby himself still didn't feel too good after being squeezed by an Arbok and being electrocuted by the same Pikachu that wants to help now.

"Come on, ya'll," encouraged Colby, getting in his stance. "We can do this. . .We just have to keep going!"

**And this one took a long time for me to post as well...AND I'M SO SORRY!**

**you see, I've been grounded this whole time, plus we just got a new faster internet and it's taken me awhile to fingure out how it works, so I'm really sorry again! I hope ya'll liked this chapter, though!**

**BTW I bet some of ya'll are like "He forgot about the cord on Alakazam's head!" Well...no I didn't! **


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